The Trainer Games
by Endles
Summary: It's time for the 61st Trainer Games! Ten brave trainers from the five districts fight for the championship and the glory of their districts. Who will be victorious? Featuring the player characters from the games. Finished for now.
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE: an untold history**

-x-

Long ago, when the world was still simple and unspoiled, there lived two brothers on the Unovan continent. Back then it was not called by such a name, for it had no ruler. People and pokémon alike wanted to claim the land as their own and war raged. Those were the days when the seeds of turmoil where first sown to the ground.

In those times, when the two brothers were born the world shook and stone crumbled, for they were the men of the legends—they would change the world. These brothers grew older, wiser and stronger and where ever they went, they were followed by the dragon that had recognized them as his equals.

Together the brothers appeased the warring peoples and united the land. Pleased by the unity that flourished, they gave it a name that would remind the people of the way it should always be. But although it seemed like peace had finally been reached, a shadow of a doubt crept into the brothers' minds. They began to resent each other, holding only themselves high enough to hold rule of the land they had both helped prosper.

A terrifying battle begun as the brothers clashed. In their attempt to force the other into submission they both turned to their ever as loyal dragon partner. In his indecision and hesitation to side with either one this magnificent dragon split its soul into two. The newborn dragons fought for many a year until the brothers finally realized that a conclusion could never be reached, for the dragons were once one and the same.

Upon coming to this stale-mate, they once more turned their interest into rebuilding harmony amongst the Unovan people. The era of peace was short lived for, as soon as time took them, their sons once more resumed the quarrel of their fathers'. In their arrogance brought on by their youth they did not realize that the dragons, which their fathers had controlled, did not as willingly listen to them and they had grown far too weary of battle to eagerly accept the commands of their new masters.

In a flurry of lightning and flame the creatures of old turned upon the men and the whole of the Unovan continent, leaving but havoc and destruction in their leave. This catastrophe that had befallen the people of Unova helped them realize how foolish it had been to fight against each other. The two dragons that had originally been one disappeared into the mists of time while the Unovans built their land with the laws of unity in the minds.

Peace, it seemed, had been restored once and for all. For as long as three thousand years the land was filled with prosperity and happiness. During this time of idleness the people came up with the notion of battling pokémon. In the beginning it served as a remainder, a warning of what would come out of mindless violence, though neither the pokémon nor the ones that guided them would be hurt in these show-offs. As time passed the people forgot the true meaning of the act and battling became a mere form of amusement.

Enraged by this cruel pleasure, a group of people rose above the masses to right what was wrong. By then the dragons that had once brought wonder and fright to the land were nothing but a myth in the tales of old folk, which is why it came as a shock when one of the dragons returned after all that time.

Lead by a young hero the dragon helped once more to unite not only the Unovan people, but the whole world, under the govern of this group that so strongly disapproved of hurting pokémon with meaningless battles. For a few years all was indeed well. The hero and the seven sages lead the world to an era, where no pokémon was used as a tool for the humans' selfish needs, but were instead regarded as friends—equals.

Then, as suddenly as lightning strikes, darkness took hold of the young hero's heart and he seized power from the sages, forcing them underneath his reign. With that began the weary days for the world of men and pokémon. In order to strengthen his rule the hero surrounded himself with his loyal followers and formed the Capitol of the five regions of Unova, Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh and Hoenn, now rendered to being called simply districts. The Capitol would serve as his seat of power and the purpose of the districts surrounding it was to serve its needs.

Excluding the strongly supervised farms and other such establishments preserved by the Capitol, pokémon and people were completely separated. No more did the hero and the sages allow the people to mingle with these creatures, but any act of companionship between the two species became harshly punishable. Such restrictions were, of course, met with resistance but for that cause the hero had the knights, the troops, which by special privileges were allowed to control pokémon and easily distinguished any flames of possible rebellions.

To justify these changes and to serve as a remainder of the bloodshed and grief that would surely result if people and pokémon joined arms the hero established a horrific law. Once a year, honoring the old tradition where children were sent out on a journey with a pokémon, each district would send out one young man and woman to fight others to the death alongside a pokémon partner.

Thus came to be what the Capitol soon began calling by a fitting name.

_**The Trainer Games**_

In sixty years the games became an unavoidable part of life for the peoples of the Unovan federation. But even though the majority of people had resigned to their fate as second class citizens, while the Capitol prospered, there were, as always, those who had not so easily given up on hope. Some of them still remembered the second dragon of the legends and wished for him to return alongside another hero, one that would challenge the other now in power.

Some even believed that no other heroes would be needed. The one that still clung to his throne had grown old and though his pokémon were powerful he was but a human. Surely there could be someone brave enough to face him, to lead the peoples of the old regions into a battle for their rights.

Now, it is time for the 61st Trainer Games, where ten young men and women will fight for the glory and honor of themselves and their home districts. The eyes of the world are all trained on these children. Will one of them rise above the rest? Will one of them change the world, or will everything remain as it has for so long? None of that is certain yet, but time will tell. So, without further ado…

_**Let the Games begin!**_

-x-

**A/N:** Hello, hello! I am pleased to present you the project which I've been working on for months now. As you see, it is a Pokémon/Hunger Games fusion. (Neither of which I own, as it seems polite to mention here.) There will probably be many alternative versions of this story, the first having **Dawn** (or Platinum) as the main character.

I've put a lot of thought on the world building of this fic, so I'll probably post notes along the chapters to clarify things that don't get that much attention. Of course, I'll also be happy to answer questions. This is only the introduction, but the next chapter will be the real thing.

Now, someone might be wondering why this isn't in the cross-over section. I think of it like this: it is a Pokémon fic, set in the pokémon world only featuring characters from the pokémon games, which borrows one plot device from the Hunger Games-trilogy. As such, I don't believe it qualifies as a cross-over.

That's all for now… I do hope I've managed to catch your interest, if only a little.

Enjoy the story!

**Endles**


	2. Dawn: part 1

**Dawn: part 1 **

-x-

The moment her name was called, Dawn saw her mother burst into tears. She was rather proud that it took three of the knights to keep Johanna from coming to her daughter's aid. She was a fierce, fierce woman with a heart of gold and Dawn was ever grateful that she had cared for her and loved her all these years.

She stepped forward, forcing herself to remain calm, eyes open and a small smile on her face. _"Think of it as another role, Dawn stone dear, you liked being Snow white in the school play didn't you? Work in the contests is just that: smile, smile, and smile. Act happy even when you feel like crying or when your stomach is yelling for food, because that smile will get you food."_

Everyone was staring at her as she made her way to the front in her best pink dress. She wondered about the things they must've been thinking—that she was awfully young, but as long as their own children were safe... yes, after all, that was the main point wasn't it? Such a pity that the young girl would undeniably die, but these things happened, there was nothing to do about it. With the thoughts heavy on her mind, the three steps leading to the stage felt a mile long each.

"Aaaaand here we have District Four's female trainer from our very own Hearthome City! Give a big hand for Dawn DeBlanc!"

Fantina's words were met with silence, only broken by the distant sobs and wails of Johanna DeBlanc. Dawn felt like screaming.

"Ah, no cheers this year either," the purple haired escort muttered to herself, before snapping back to attention and reading out the name of the male trainer with a large smile plastered on her lips. Nobody moved. The boy—Dawn had already forgotten his name—must've been from another town. At least she wouldn't be killed by anyone she knew, that would make things a bit easier.

"Très bien… now that the trainers have been chosen, I wish you all happy Trainer Games!" She turned to face Dawn and nodded, sickeningly sweet. "And as for nous petite dresseuse, our little trainer… May the odds be ever in your favor!"

Dawn managed a bitter smile for the cameras as her mother started screaming.

-x-

They didn't allow Johanna in for very long, because apparently she had caused too much hassle at the reaping. As soon as the door opened she marched in and swooped her daughter up in her embrace. Dawn allowed herself to be held and inhaled the scent of her mother's hair. It could be the last time she saw her and she wanted to make most of it.

"Mom, don't get into trouble because of me," she whispered against her mother's shoulder. "You said yourself we gotta look good even if we don't feel good, so now's the time to put those words into action. If I hear you've neglected your duties, I'm gonna be pissed when I return."

Johanna let out a noise that was half a laugh, half a sob. "Yes, dear, you're absolutely correct," she said with the faked conviction of someone who has been selling lies for over a decade. "I'll do my best, so you better do yours, you hear?"

Dawn smiled, rebellious tear welling in her eyes, and nodded. "Sure thing, mom. I'll do my best like you always taught me to."

Her mother returned the smile, although on her lips it was weaker. "That's my Dawn stone. Be sure to pick some great pokémon. You know more about them than most, so you'll be at an advantage, remember that."

Right after her words, two knights marched into the room to announce that their time was up. They didn't need to drag Johanna off the room, like they'd expected to. Instead she turned and followed them calmly, throwing one last smile to her daughter at the doorway.

Dawn's chest clenched painfully.

"I love you mom!" she cried after her, but the door had already slammed shut.

-x-

Fantina, or rather Frances Fontaine as her actual name was, came to pick Dawn up from the room minutes after her mother had left. By then, she had managed to will her tears away and hoped that her face wasn't as puffy as it felt. The woman did pause to raise an eyebrow at the sight of her, so perhaps she hadn't quite pulled it off.

"Allez, ma petite, we must hurry or we'll miss the ferry… and we don't really want that now, do we?" She wore an expression suggesting that Dawn should be sharing a laugh with her. Instead the girl felt like yelling _"Yes we do!" _at the top of her lungs.

"I guess we don't," she mustered as a response.

Fantina hummed in agreement. "I was wondering how old are you? Fourteen? You certainly do not look older than fifteen at most."

She winced slightly, but Fantina didn't notice. "Thirteen since last month."

"So young?" The woman asked surprised. "Ah, mais don't let that trouble you. This is not a competition of size or age, but that of skill. Which, I'm sure, you'll prove to have more than anyone expects."

Dawn thought bitterly that the woman's words meant little when nobody was expecting anything of her, but said nothing. They walked in silence out of the Gym and straight into a car with darkened windows. Dawn tried not to look too much in awe, but the truth was that she had never been inside a car. Very few people in Sinnoh (not District Four like official documents stated—to Dawn her home region would always be Sinnoh) could afford them and most of those people had come from the Capitol.

Inside, she was amazed to realize that she couldn't even feel the movement. Fantina claimed that they moved so fast that they would be in Canalave in an hour and a half. It must've been true because the scenery was passing by in a blur, leaving her no time to really admire the forests and mountains she was leaving behind, probably forever.

She felt a pang of guilt—hadn't she promised her mother that she would try to return just ten minutes ago? She struggled to gain some confidence, but it was hard. It was easier to give in and accept her fate. She always had been a calm child, content with whatever she had and when times were hard she accepted it with a straight face while the rest of the kids sniveled.

"Alors," Fantina started with a glance to her escort's direction. Dawn could tell she was actually more interested with her nails than actually holding a conversation. "How are you feeling? Excited to see the Capitol and meet a real domesticated pokémon, no doubt?"

"Not really," Dawn offered, feeling sheepish. "My mom and I work in the contests you see, so I've met plenty of pokémon before and had a touch of the Capitol glamour. A small touch, no doubt, but it isn't like I'll have time to see much more while there…"

The woman looked up when she mentioned contests, eyes shining. "You work in the contests, ma petite? That's… formidable!" Fantina grinned. "I'm a big fan myself, I try to watch as many shows as possible, but I guess you must've seen a lot more."

Dawn shook her head. "Oh, no—no I don't get to watch them. But I get to take care of the pokémon before the shows and sometimes assist the competitors, run errands and such. I guess it'll be useful in the games, knowing something about the creatures."

"Oh yes, it will be a tremendous help!" The escort threw her hands in the air. She seemed to be fond of theatricality—Dawn remembered one year, when she'd slapped a knight during the reaping. It had been quite a scene. "You are most definitely champion material!" Fantina swooned. "A pretty young thing with knowledge on pokémon and performing… you can bet that the audience will _love _you to death."

_You can bet that 'love' won't be the cause of your death_, Dawn's inner voice reminded her, but she tried to smile gratefully at the purple haired woman. At least she tried to make her believe like her fate wasn't set in stone.

-x-

Meeting the male trainer from her region didn't go at all like she'd imagined. Seeing as Sinnoh used to be fairly rich with natural resources, under the Capitol's control District Four had fared far better than the others, excluding the Capitol's home and pet region, Unova. She herself had come off fairly well in life, what with living in the region's biggest city and actually working in the contests. Thus, she had expected that the boy she'd be accompanying would be much the same as her, middle class and all. It wasn't even that uncommon to have volunteers from their region.

Instead, she was faced with a pale scrawny kid who looked younger than her but was supposed to be fourteen. He was from Sandgem, probably the poorest town of the region along Dawn's birthplace, Twinleaf. The boy offered her a smile before they were even in talking distance and Dawn decided that there was no way he could cause the death of this boy.

Fantina seemed to pay no mind to the male trainer, instead letting out a string of French and sprinting forward to hug the boy's escort, an equally purple haired man in a flamboyant crimson suit. Dawn wrinkled his brows. Behind the man's back, the other trainer rolled his eyes and shrugged making eye contact with Dawn. It made her almost giggle out loud.

"Oh, mon dieu! Lucian! I had no idea that you were an escort this year!" Fantina exclaimed, finally letting the man go.

He merely brushed his suit and offered the woman a sly smile. "They needed me in Jubilife… it seems that the previous escort refused to ever return to, I quote, 'such a tedious and dreadful job'."

Fantina chuckled. "I guess it can be… unrewarding, but I rather like it." Only then she seemed to notice the boy standing about behind Lucian. "And this must be the male trainer of District Four, oui?"

"Lucas Leon," the boy piped up, before Lucian could answer for him. "I'm from Sandgem, not from Jubilife, since we gotta walk there for the reaping. Guess, our town is too small for a reaping of its own." Lucas shrugged and turned to face Dawn, with a weary grin. He was friendly, apparently, and Dawn already liked him, which was _bad_ considering the future. "It's nice to meet you… Dawn, was it?"

"Yes, Dawn DeBlanc," she replied with a smaller smile of her own.

"Well then," Lucian interrupted them, flicking his wrist rather unnecessarily to check his no doubt expensive watch, "with the introductions out of the way, we better get going. There's a ferry waiting for us."

As they began to walk the short distance to the port, Lucas turned back to Dawn, all curious eyes and boyish charms. "Have you been on a ferry before, Dawn?"

She shook her head.

"I can tell you," Lucas whispered gravely, "it won't be a pleasant experience. I ended up puking all the way on my first trip to Unova. It was pathetic really, a sad little kid doubled over a bucket..."

Dawn laughed, the boy grinned and just like that, they became friends.

-x-

It turned out that Dawn was immune to whatever forces were causing Lucas sea sickness. Even though he'd been at the sea many times, being the Unovan professor Rowan's assistant as he told, he had to retreat to his room right after they'd eaten dinner with their escorts. It was the first time ever Dawn had seen so many variations of food and she was from Hearthome! Lucas had temporarily lost his ability to chatter when faced with all the treats on offer.

Dawn was left alone on the deck, staring into the distance and contemplating what she should do next, when someone seemed to appear out of nowhere behind her back. The 'someone' scooped down low to murmur against Dawn's ear, hot breath tickling her neck and sending shivers down her spine.

"_Aren't we a pretty one? If we can get some life on that serious little face of yours, we may have ourselves a winner."_

Dawn turned around so fast that her head started spinning. The woman was tall and somehow familiar. She was dressed in a luxurious fur trimmed coat and her blonde hair cascaded all the way down her back like waves of honey. Dawn flushed pink, feeling like she was nothing compared to _that_ even if the lady herself had called her pretty.

"Oh, you really _are_ cute," the blonde crooned and offered her hand to Dawn. "Cynthia Shire, at your service from this moment on... I'll be your mentor, in case you hadn't already figured as much."

Her familiarity made sense then and with a little effort Dawn could vaguely recall Cynthia's games from when she had been younger. It had been five or six years ago, if her memory could be trusted, and she had battled with some dragon type pokémon effortlessly. Actually, now that she thought about it, Dawn was pretty sure that her only real competition had been the other trainer from Sinnoh, a quiet and calculating boy who seemed to have no issue with killing along his pokémon.

"Dawn DeBlanc," Dawn said and took the hand, with a timid smile. She felt pretty proud when her hand didn't shake. The mentor probably knew her name already, but Dawn didn't want to be rude. "I'm looking forward to working with you."

Cynthia seemed faintly amused. "Are you, now?" she asked. "Well, that's good then because I'm your best bet at surviving the games—and a good bet that. Of course, this is only because you yourself are such promising little treasure. Dawn…" She paused to offer the girl a contemplative look. "How would you rate your own chances?"

The trainer was slightly startled by the question, but struggled to recoil swiftly. "Um… well, I guess I'm small and pretty enough to attract at least some sponsors, but I'm not too sure of my skills… I mean, I do have some experience with pokémon which sets me on a higher ground than most, but I'd really have to toughen up. At least, that's what I think."

"Honey," Cynthia chuckled sympathetically, "you're far too modest. But that's fine, actually better than fine. The Capitol will love a cute, modest, nice little girl after all the coldblooded and tough champions they've had. You're lucky to be perfect fit for the trend that Iris set last year—if you can remind them of her while being distinctively your own likeable self… well, they'll eat off your hand."

Dawn couldn't speak but she nodded, wide-eyed. Cynthia was saying that she honestly stood a chance—that odds actually _were _in her favor. She remembered Iris, the cheerful talkative girl from Unova who had ended up winning the previous games. _Hadn't she been thirteen too? _Iris had only scored a 6, but had won the Capitol's support on her side with her interview and as such had been showered with gifts from sponsors all throughout the games. It had caused a tremendous mass movement when she won—everyone had wanted to meet the young champion, who was far too cheerful for the reality of the games.

Could she be like that too, Dawn wondered. Could she gain such popularity with a smile and a few kind words? At least Cynthia seemed to believe so, as she went over her strategy for Dawn and tried to teach her how to act during the following days. She honestly seemed dedicated on making Dawn win and that cheered the girl up more than any kind words she'd heard that day. They chatted and pondered tactics far into the night and when Dawn retreated to her cabin she felt a tiny shimmer of hope light up in her heart.

Maybe she would really get back to her mother as a champion.

-x-

The next morning Dawn bumped straight into Lucas coming out of her cabin. The boy didn't seem dazed much, but that didn't stop Dawn from blushing in embarrassment and mumbling about how sorry she was. Lucas waved her off with a laugh saying that he'd been hit with worse things than her door and she relaxed a bit. In her mind she wondered what the boy could mean with that. Had he been bullied in school? Were his parents or somebody around him abusive? He certainly wasn't the healthiest looking boy she'd ever met, but he seemed positive enough about life so she doubted that. She bit her lip, figuring she shouldn't meddle in such private matters.

Together they headed to the observation deck for some breakfast. On the way they encountered an excited looking Fantina who said that they would be arriving in Castelia City, the Capitol's southern center, in a few hours. The escort suggested that they eat and get ready before dashing off towards what Lucas claimed to be his mentor's cabin. Dawn turned to him, curiosity getting the best of her.

"So you met your mentor?" She asked and then added with a teasing smile: "And here I thought you were too sick to talk… your green face was really quite something."

Lucas made a face. "Oh please, I'm not that weak," he muttered with faked sourness, before breaking into a grin. "But yeah, I met him. Interesting guy… he won't reveal his first name to me and I was too young when he won to remember it. He told me to call him Volkner."

Dawn tried to picture a face to the name but came through blank. It really must've been when they were small. "I don't remember him," she admitted. "What's he like?"

"Like I said, he's interesting. Kinda broody and claims to be bored all the time, but I guess he likes me alright." Lucas scratched his chin, thinking for something more to say. "If I'm not wrong, he won his games by building an electrical trap with help of his Shinx some nine years ago."

"Oh," Dawn gasped, suddenly remembering a boy with blond spikes, but nothing more. "Yeah, I think I can remember him now. He won the year before Cynthia."

The boy's head perked up at the mention of the other champion's name. "Cynthia Shire? Wait," he pointed at Dawn, grinning, "_she's_ your mentor! That's awesome, Dawn. From what I remember she really knows what she's doing when she's serious."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah, she really is quite… determined."

Lucas snorted. "You don't say."

They fell into comfortable silence for a while as they seated themselves and started piling food on their plates. Dawn definitely wouldn't get used to having so much but she thought that it was quite nice, living in luxury for a week before the games. There were worse ways to spend the last days of one's life as she could full well imagine, having seen the homeless on the back alleys of Hearthome.

Sometime later they were joined by Cynthia and Lucian, who were in the middle of an academic sounding discussion. Soon after that came Fantina, looking a bit like a child caught red-handed. Volkner arrived only half an hour before docking, looking broody just like Lucas had described him. Dawn threw the boy a look and Lucas shook his head, as if to say he had no idea what made the man like that. Her sympathies were on Lucas' side.

Minutes prior to docking, Fantina called them out to the windows. Dawn felt a shiver of excitement as she slowly walked onto view, seeing Castelia's piers and the enormous masses of colorfully dressed, shouting, laughing and waving people. Watching them pointing at her made her feel small and meaningless and so very alone until Cynthia moved to stand by her side.

"Remember Dawn stone," she whispered so that only Dawn could hear. Breath caught in the girl's throat when the woman used the nickname she'd revealed to her the previous night. It reminded her of home. "Shine as bright as you can and they won't forget you or let you down."

Dawn swallowed and nodded.

Then she started waving back.

-x-

**A/N:**

Here it is… the first chapter! I wonder how things will go from here on.

**Some notes:**

The Reaping is held separately in every big city, because despite the low population, the distances between the towns are far too long to have only one, single reaping. They still choose only one girl and boy from every region, so it's needless to say that the competitors are selected in advance.

Sinnoh is, as stated, one of the richest districts with developed industries. Many people from the Capitol have moved there to live in the luxury neighborhoods and some, like Fantina, even have ancestry there. In the past, its occupants used to speak French but nowadays the language has mostly been forgotten and has become somewhat of a fad among its Capitol-born occupants, who wish to sound sophisticated.

The Contests still exist, as a form of amusement for the Capitol's people, when there are no Trainer Games to watch.

The pokémon professors exist to study the pokémon on behalf of the Capitol, because the need information on how to best control the creatures without the districts' getting a hold of any, as well as which pokémon is best suited for whatever needs the capitol may have.

The Capitol itself consists of Castelia and Nimbasa, but many Capitol-born people live in the nearby cities of the Unovan continent, as well as in the largest cities of the districts. They don't really see the bad living conditions of the districts, living in their private parts of the town. And of course, there is the luxurious summer resort of Undella Bay.

Lucas is somewhat of an enigma—he's obviously poor and his family is large, but he somehow managed to be picked as the professor's assistant, so he's seen a lot in his years. Though, I don't think Rowan is as nice to him in this story as he is in the games…

Finally, I had fun with names. I didn't want to copy them from Special, so I made up my own last names and occasionally first names, like with Volkner. Yes, I know what it is. ;)

I'm going to stop now, before these notes get longer than the actual chapter. Did you love it? Hate it? Did something seem unclear? Feel free to ask anything!


	3. Dawn: part 2

**Dawn: Part 2 **

-x-

Stepping out of the ferry and onto the pier was an overwhelming experience, even when Dawn was quickly escorted to a limo with darkened glasses. From there they drove to the Training center, easily one of Castelia's tallest skyscrapers, which would work as the trainers' home for the week preceding the games. As soon as she was inside Dawn was taken to a white room and told to strip and wait for her preparation team. It was, no doubt, her most uncomfortable experience in the Capitol: being alone, naked and in a weird place when two strangers barged into the room.

"This one is in better shape than the one last year," a woman in a black frilly dress remarked solemnly.

The other, a woman with braided green hair, hummed softly in agreement. "Yes, we must be in luck this time. Still, there is always so much work to do… Marley dear, could you—"

"Yes, yes…" the first one cut through, sounding bored, as she turned to address dawn. "The name's Marley and this is Cheryl." The green haired woman waved a bit. "We're here to get you ready before Riley dolls you up in those creations of his."

Dawn nodded and the woman sighed.

"Well, let's get on with it then."

From there on for what felt like hours Dawn was bathed and soaked with luxurious, scented lotions and perfumes. Her hair was washed at least three times and then dried and at first curled, then, after the prep team received a message from the head stylist, straightened back again and tied up in the most elaborate style Dawn had ever witnessed. She had to admit it made her look extremely pretty and stylish in the Capital sense of style.

After that it was time for makeup. While working Marley told her that they were asked by Cynthia to make her look as "natural, cute and girly" as possible. Dawn agreed that it was a good idea… she hadn't ever worn makeup and had been worried that it would completely change her. Cheryl didn't talk as she worked, but smiled gently at Dawn every time she glanced her way. When the women were finally done and apparently pleased enough with the results, they dragged Dawn's chair in front of a large mirror and left her there to wait for her head stylist.

"Riley's visiting your boyfriend now," Marley said with her flat voice. Dawn blushed. "He'll be here in no time. Don't bite your lips or sweat."

With that they were off. Dawn felt nervous, but tried not to fiddle. She didn't want to ruin the gorgeous work her prep team had done. Soon enough the door slid open and a man in a blue, old-fashioned suit and a matching hat stepped in. He looked up and grinned when he saw Dawn. She instantly liked him.

"Hello Dawn," the man greeted her, crossing the distance and coming to stand besides her. Their eyes met via the mirror. "You probably know already, but I'm Riley and from now on I'm the one deciding what you'll wear."

Dawn was very conscious of the fact that she was wearing only a thin white gown at the moment and felt her cheeks heat up. Luckily the makeup prevented her from turning all red.

"The purpose of stylists is to create an image of you—to make you desirable or likeable in the eyes of the viewers, which will help you gain sponsors." Riley explained calmly. "I've had a chat with your mentor and I completely agree with her. Our best strategy is to play the cute girl angle. In order for that to work you need to play the part too, but my job is to make it really easy for you… and I have the perfect method for that."

Dawn looked up, hopeful and Riley cleared his throat before continuing. "You must know that the first big event of the games is the opening ceremony, later tonight. Now, for that there's a tradition to dress the trainers to present the pokémon of each district's legends."

"Oh," dawn couldn't help the sigh of delight, remembering the amazing outfits from the past games. Iris had worn the colors of hydreigon in an amazing flowing black and blue gown with six wings growing from her back, matching those of the dragon. "What am I going to be?" She asked.

"Well, considering what we're aiming for, there's only one possibility really…" the man replied nonchalantly.

Dawn held her breath. Riley smiled fondly.

"_Cresselia."_

-x-

Before the ceremony, Dawn met Lucas in the floor appointed to their district's team. Lucas had apparently been fussed over by a pair of red haired brothers, who were both talkative and seemed to know Volkner well. The other, Flint, had even offered to reveal Volkner's mystery first name but had been interrupted when Riley had appeared to the doorway. Lucas had gotten a Darkrai themed outfit to match Dawn's and to add up to his slightly ghastly look. Dawn agreed that it would make him seem like one of those creepy kids they'd heard about in horror movies—not that either had seen one, but the people of Capitol had, and if they liked them they would hopefully be fascinated by Lucas.

Cynthia and Volkner offered them last pieces of advice on how to act during the chariot ride while they ate dinner, carefully avoiding smudging their makeup.

"Stay cool," Volkner said very seriously, pointing the boy with a fork. "You can't be your annoying self this time. You have to keep you head and look at the crowds as if they were disinteresting, like you're above them and not the brat you are."

Lucas looked slightly offended, but nodded.

Cynthia chuckled softly. "Don't mind Volkner's manners, dear," she said around a sip of white wine. "It'll add a great effect if you're all silent and distant and Dawn by your side will be smiling and enthusiastic, if a bit shy like a good girl only should. It'll make you both look more interesting."

After finishing eating the trainers headed downstairs to be dressed and readied for the ride. As they waited Dawn hoped that they had gone with ponytas on what pokémon pulled the chariots. She had always been rather fond of the way the ponytas' manes would light up the chariots, casting glow on the trainers.

She turned to be in luck when they were lead to stand and wait in the chariots. Dawn gasped. The ponytas stationed in front of the carriages had brilliantly glowing blue manes. She wondered how the Capitol had managed to find so many of the rare breed, but didn't feel like thinking about that when the effect was so beautiful.

When the doors opened, a huge wall of noise hit them like wind in the face. The other trainers stood proud in their own carriages, waiting as the pair from the first district started forward. Dawn suddenly realized that she had so far paid no mind to the other people taking part in the games—she had been so absorbed in reminding herself of the way she should act. With the first two chariots out in the open already, it was too late to start ogling now. Based on the calls from the crowd they all had amazing outfits.

The girl and boy before them started moving out. Lucas let out a shaky breath.

"This is it," he said and offered Dawn one final weak grin. "Let's roll."

If opening the doors had been a shock, it was nothing compared to how it felt when they were out there, making way down the street, surrounded by screaming crowds all around them.

"_**And here ladies and gentlemen are the trainers of District four! Please welcome Dawn DeBlanc and Lucas Leon!" **_

The announcer's voice boomed in Dawn's head like thunder. Still, she remembered what she was doing there and acted as well as she always had, as well as her mother had taught her to act. She waved to the crowds, held her bright smile and turned her head into every direction as if dazed by all the attention. Honestly, it wasn't an act for the most parts—she was a bit lost at sea being the center of all the people's attention.

The entire crowd was screaming in adoration, and the noise must have doubled when they truly came to view. Dawn fiddled with her sparkling ribbons, hoping to look cute. Her dress was truly magnificent, flowing around her in a swirl of pink and pale purple. Beside her, Lucas kept his stony expression even though Dawn could see sweat forming on his brows. She offered him a dazzling smile and was suddenly faced with her own face on the big viewing screens all around her. People rose from their seats, throwing confetti to the street.

"_**Wow folks, look at that! It seems that the stylists have dressed the pair as Cresselia and Darkrai, the deities of night and the moon! What a brilliant match, right? Outstanding, simply outstanding… ladies and gentleman, give it up to Dawn and Lucas from District four!"**_

They pulled to a stop in front of the platform where President Harmonia always held his speech and waited for the last chariot to fall in line. Then the Capitol's anthem sounded as the green haired old man in his luxurious robes slowly walked to the podium and made gestures for the crowd to quiet down before starting with the welcomes to the trainers.

Dawn didn't exactly listen—she had heard the speech so many times and it practically never changed. Besides, it was hard to concentrate when she felt like she was in a dream. Everything was too good to be true. Still, a small part of her dreaded the moment it would turn into a nightmare.

-x-

Later that night, when Dawn was already tucked up in bed, Cynthia knocked on the door before quietly slipping inside the girl's room. Dawn rose into sitting position. She was having trouble sleeping anyways. Her mentor sat down on the edge of the bed, looking more serious than Dawn had yet seen her.

"Tomorrow is going to be the first day of the training," she said gravely, staring right into Dawn's eyes. "It's your first day as a real trainer and one of the days that really settle your fate in the upcoming games. You did really well tonight," she paused to smile encouragingly, "but even the love of the Capitol audience won't be enough if you cannot choose your pokémon wisely."

Dawn hesitated. "Then... what should I do?"

"Definitely don't follow my example," Cynthia grimaced, obviously embarrassed by whatever memories she had of her own games. "I made a terrible pick, thinking that I needed a fierce attack-based pokémon, and that almost got me killed."

"Which pokémon did you choose?" Dawn asked curiously.

The woman's expression softened. "A gible," she murmured. "She was an amazing fighter and protector to the very end, but... we can't all be winners." Cynthia had lost her partner to poisoning in the last moments of the games. "But that's enough of me. We need to focus on you, Dawn stone, to ensure your victory, right?"

Dawn smiled. "Right."

"That's the spirit!" Cynthia reached out and ruffled her hair. She squirmed. "Now, here's my best advice to you so listen closely..."

The girl forced herself to concentrate, even if sleep was quickly catching up on her.

"Pick water," Cynthia said, slow and serious. "You need water to survive, that's the first rule every single mentor teaches their trainers. Food you can go without, but if you don't have water to drink you're as good as gone. Most water-type pokémon can produce drinkable water, so if you have one as your partner you're at an evident advantage."

She fell silent, waiting for the young trainer to file away the information.

"Secondly, if you have any knowledge on pokémon, and you do, use it. If there's a pokémon you know from beforehand and know it to be good, pick that. There's no reason to go with a shot in the dark, even if those pokémon could prove to be far better in skilled hands, simply because you are _not_ that skilled and neither is anyone else you'll be facing. Go with what you know."

Dawn nodded signaling that she had understood. Cynthia seemed pleased.

"And finally, one thing to help you along in more ways than one… If you can recognize one, pick a predator. They're obviously better in attacking than the rest so you can imagine how that will be useful." The idea sent shivers down Dawn's spine. "But predators are hunters as well, which many trainers seem to forget. A predator may help you catch food on the arena and thus add up to your chances of survival."

The room fell silent around them and they shared a small smile. Dawn tried to remain positive, she had a great mentor just like Lucas had said, but she was afraid it wouldn't be enough. She herself was lacking in so many ways. What use were smiles and laughs to her if she failed the following day? She would be eaten alive by the other trainers.

She swallowed, trying to push the fear to the bottom of her stomach. A flash of some strange emotion passed Cynthia's eyes and suddenly Dawn found herself flush against the woman's chest in a tight embrace.

"Try to think positive," the mentor whispered, words falling soft in the silence surrounding them. "I know it's hard, but it'll get you through this, I promise."

Dawn only hugged her tight, unable to speak.

-x-

She woke up when Fantina pounded on her door the next morning.

"Rise and shine, ma petite, it's a new day full of exciting new adventures!" she called through the door.

Dawn had the urge to groan, block her ears with a pillow and go back to sleep. Suppressing it, she slipped out of bed and padded to the door. The woman marched in like she owned the place—for all that Dawn knew, maybe she did—and unceremoniously dropped a pile of clothes onto her bed.

"Voilà," she boomed out. "Here are the clothes Riley sent you. You'll be wearing these during training so get a move on."

Dawn obediently did as she was told, put on the clothes and headed out for some breakfast. Lucas was already eating a strangely turquoise omelet when she arrived. He greeted her with his mouth full, ended up choking on a peanut and coughing so hard that Volkner, who was also sitting at the table, had to slap his back repeatedly. All in all, it was a rather stress relieving way to start the morning.

The whole time Cynthia was nowhere to be seen and when Dawn asked Volkner about it, he shrugged and said that she had some business to take care of. She figured that her mentor had already made sure she would be prepared for the day and tried her best to steel her nerves.

From the breakfast table they headed straight down. Only the girl from District Three was already lounging about in the gym when they arrived. She looked up when they walked in but seemed disappointed upon recognizing the newcomers and soon returned to staring at the far wall. Lucas frowned at the girl, muttering something about 'prickly careers'. Dawn had to agree—the girl most definitely had that look about her.

So to speak, only District Five was regarded as a career district, producing trainers specifically trained for the games. District Three had honestly almost as many volunteers, but it wasn't seen as a career district as many of the volunteers had not in fact been preparing for the games. They merely saw volunteering as a way to escape their miserable living conditions and were toughened up by the harsh work at the sea. Most of the region's population worked as fishermen, providing fresh food for the whole federation.

The girl from Hoenn, as the district's old name was, didn't seem starved or sickly at all, definitely not in the way Lucas still looked even though he was starting to get some color on his skin. She was tanned and almost buff, but feminine enough to be considered beautiful by the society's standards. Her brown hair was held up with a red bandana that matched her top. The red color choice was excellent, Dawn noted with nervousness, because it made her look more aggressive even when she was still and rather impassive.

Some of the assistants called them over to have their district's number sewn onto their clothes. After that they were told look around a bit while they waited for the remaining trainers. Before they managed to heed those words, Volkner waved them over impatiently.

"Cynthia asked me to deliver a message to you, sugar cube," he said, pointing at Dawn. "Try your hand in all of the stations that deal with survival skills. And as for you, brat…"Lucas glared at his mentor, but the man didn't even notice. "I suggest you do the same. But I urge the both of you to train just as hard with your pokémon. There's no way either of you will be much use on your own against… well _any_ of the other trainers, but if you can tame your pokémon well enough, they'll do the dirty work for you. Now that's food for thought."

He straightened up and for a passing second he looked more… _sad_ than bored, as was typical of him.

"Good luck, kids," he muttered, turning away and heading back towards the door. Before he was out he called out over his shoulder one last piece of advice:

"Choose well."

-x-

As soon as the last trainer—the girl from District Two—had arrived and been assigned her number, a woman in a white lab coat stepped forward.

"Hi there! I've been waiting for you young people!" She spoke with the enthusiasm of someone who didn't really care that nine of the 'young people' before her were not going to be alive by the end of the games. "Let me introduce myself… I am Professor Juniper and I'm responsible for handing out the pokémon, which, as you all well know, will be your most important allies in the arena. Your training will commence right after you have gotten your very own partner and I stress that it's important for all of you to train your pokémon. Otherwise you might end up getting cut by your own sword, so to speak. Now, if you'd all follow me, I will take you to the lab…"

She led them to the back of the gymnasium and through some doors into a clean white room, where five tables were presented before them, each containing three of the red and white capsules Dawn knew were called pokéballs. They had been illegal ever since the Great Liberation and as such were only used during the games to contain the pokémon used by the trainers.

"This year we have set a theme," Professor Juniper started explaining once more after everyone was gathered around the tables. "Each table contains one fire, one water and one grass-type pokémon, each typical to a single district, though not as common in wild as they used to be long ago. The order in which you get to choose your pokémon will be decided by lot and I shall do the honors of acting as lady luck." She smiled, rather pleased of herself. "Any questions? No? Then, Fennel, please if you could…"

Another woman in a lab coat appeared carrying a glass bowl exactly like the ones used in the reaping. Juniper grandiosely stretched her arm before diving it into the bowl. She picked out one of the white pieces of paper and folded it open.

"May Birch!" She read out with a clear voice.

The girl from district 3 smirked and stepped forward.

"Right this way," the professor's assistant, Fennel, directed. "You may try out what's inside. Pick whichever you deem most suitable."

May didn't take too long making her pick. In fact she only threw out one of the balls, containing an orange bird-pokémon like which Dawn had never seen. She seemed pleased with it, calling it back and silently walking out of the room pokéball in hand.

After her it was the boys from districts one and five and then, as suddenly as it had happened in the reaping, professor Juniper picked up another paper and called out:

"Dawn DeBlanc!"

Lucas elbowed him, grinning, but there was something painful in his eyes. She couldn't dare to hold his gaze for long, stumbling forward almost too fast.

"Ooh, eager aren't we?" Fennel laughed and the professor joined her. "There's no rush dear… here, try these and remember to choose wisely."

Dawn tried the first pokéball, unleashing a small tortoise-like creature with a leaf on top of its head. It was charming with its bulky figure, but Dawn remembered Cynthia's words—this wasn't what she was looking for. _Water, _she thought, _I need a water-type. _She called the pokémon back and reached for the next ball.

This time she was in luck, in more ways than one. A piplup materialized on the table before her widened eyes. She had seen piplups in the contests. It was a water type and a predator, as well. _Pick something you know. Pick water. Pick a predator. _Dawn smiled.

-x-

**A/N:**

Not as much to say this time… and aren't you all glad for that? :D

Great Liberation is the name of the Plasma uprising that resulted in the separation of people and pokémon. The prologue was about this, but I intentionally made it vague. Ghetsis is the hero that seized control after the first few years. This whole fic project began from the idea that _he_ should be the president in this kind of a universe. It's an idea I borrowed from another (sadly unfinished) pokémon/hunger games fic **The Hungry Pokemon Games **by Windflicker, which I highly recommend.

Next time we'll see how Dawn manages in training! Until then, reviews are always appreciated.


	4. Dawn: part 3

**Dawn: part 3**

-x-

She named the piplup Jo, a diminutive of Johanna, simply out of home-sickness. In truth, she wasn't even sure if the pokémon was female… she had simply gone with an assumption. To start out the pokémon and its trainer headed for the station that dealt with training pokémon and battling. The instructor was a brawny dark skinned man with a strange flat hairdo and blue teeth. Honestly, Dawn spent more time being thrown off by the man's appearance than actually listening to what he was saying but she did well enough in the exercises to earn a grunt of acknowledgement from the instructor.

Jo liked her well enough, or at least Dawn assumed the penguin liked her, because it kept trying to nuzzle her hand when she was petting it after a job well done. The instructor told her to treat the pokémon often and always with fish to earn it's trust and loyalty. Dawn didn't need to be told twice.

In the end she ended up making a game of it, keeping in mind what Cynthia had said about a predator being able to aid her with hunting for food. She would hide a fish somewhere in the gym, mostly in the pools, and Jo would have to look for it and bring it back without swallowing it. If it managed to do so, it would get the fish as well as an oran berry, which, Dawn soon realized, was an even bigger treat than fish for the pokémon.

By the time the trainers were ushered out of the gym for a lunch break Jo had learned to find three or more fish before asking for a treat, as well as how to pour water into a flask. Dawn was rather proud of their progress. In the large mess hall she tried looking for Lucas but saw the boy head to table with the trainers from district five. She felt betrayed but didn't want to intrude so she picked a table by the far left side of the room, prepared to eat alone.

Instead she was joined by the tardy, pigtailed brunette from district two. The girl slipped into the seat opposite of Dawn and offered her a mischievous grin.

"Hi," she greeted happily. Her voice was rather high to Dawn's ears, but definitely pleasant to listen to. "I'm Lyra. I'm not bothering to ask if I can sit here, because you obviously have no reason to oppose when your bf has switched sides or something… Oh, and you're Dawn, so no need to repeat it. The pleasure is all mine."

Dawn was frankly more than a little puzzled. Luckily, Lyra didn't seem to expect her to come up with a reply and kept talking like an express train.

"I know, I know, this is the Trainer Games, we're not supposed to be friendly to each other, it's only going to make our matter worse, yadda, yadda… but I said to myself 'Lyra, there's no reason to quit being who you are, even for the games' so I'm not gonna. So, so what if I'm friendly and open? Tough luck that's who I am and if you don't like it, well, screw you."

She winked at Dawn.

"But I don't think you're one of those pricks who can't chat up a girl they'll maybe end up killing next week, or are you? I saw you working with that piplup… brilliant work! I wish I was half as smart as you are, maybe then I'd hold some chances of getting into elite four at least."

She ended her crazy rambling in a long-suffering sight. Dawn couldn't stop her lips quirking upwards. The situation was just too whimsical.

Lyra noticed her unwilling smile and beamed. "Oh Dawn, I knew you cared!"

"Well," Dawn replied full on grinning, "I didn't."

-x-

Cautiously the two girls formed something akin to friendship. Lyra insisted on hanging around Dawn when they got back to the gym and when Dawn returned to training the next day, the older girl was already waiting for her. Lyra taught her how to recognize most edible plants—she had worked in an herb and flower shop most of her life. In turn, Dawn helped her to gain the trust of her pokémon partner, chicorita. Both soon realized that together their chances of surviving in the arena would double.

"So, what, we're like partners?" Lyra asked after the second day of training. "Cause I kinda dig the sound of that. It's not like I could kill you anyways, so it would be better if we worked together, right?"

"I guess so."

"Awesome." The pigtailed girl grinned and pulled Dawn into a half-hearted hug. "We'll be unbeatable, like Thelma and Louise, except preferably without the double suicide part in the end."

The younger let out a surprised laugh. "Lyra! You're so…" She struggled to find a proper way finish the sentence.

"Brilliant? Beautiful? Something else that starts with b?"

"Bonkers." Dawn decided. "Definitely bonkers."

Her answer sent Lyra into a mad giggling fit that only subdued when they had to break apart. The thoroughly spent Lyra stepped out of the elevator and waved with both hands.

"Tomorrow's the last day before the private sessions… better be early, Dawn stone!" She reminded right before the elevator's doors slid shut.

Dawn rode up to her own floor and almost bumped into a tall gray haired man walking out of the elevator. She looked up and met an absentminded pair of eye staring back down at her. Dawn's cheeks heated up.

"Sorry," she mumbled, quickly casting her eyes down.

"There's no need to apologize, Dawn," the man called after her. Even his voice sounded faraway, like he wasn't completely present in the moment.

The girl stopped, turned and nodded to the man, before hastily escaping inside the living quarters. Cynthia was lounging on the couch reading a book when she scrambled in. The woman snapped her fingers at Dawn.

"Did you work hard in training?" She asked when the girl had sauntered over to hear her out.

"Of course," Dawn replied. "We tried the knots, but I wasn't very good at them…"

Cynthia looked up from the book, suddenly suspicious. "Who's 'we'?"

"Oh, um, I mean me and Lyra," Dawn stuttered trying to explain. She hadn't told Cynthia about the girl, because she hadn't been sure how her mentor would react to the unexpected alliance. "The girl from Joh—District two."

Cynthia's eyes narrowed. "I don't care if you call the districts by their real names," she said, "but I do care to know if you're forming alliances behind my back. Now, who is she really? She's the pigtailed girl, isn't she? What's she like?"

Dawn ended up trying to describe Lyra for a long time. In the end Cynthia seemed pleased enough, even allowing the alliance, but reminded her that alliances could be dangerous. The girl had thought about it, yes, but honestly, it felt so much better to know that there was someone watching her back and suffering with her. It made thinking about what was coming so much more bearable.

Besides, it was nice when someone was talking to her. Lucas had more or less stopped interacting with her after they had received their pokémon. He was still being polite and saying good morning and good night and taking the elevator down together with her, but it wasn't the same. It felt stupid considering that she had known him for a couple of days, but she had grown used to his chattering and the smirks that brought a glow into his weary eyes. She missed it but figured that there was no helping it.

Besides, as she liked reminding herself far too often, they would be facing each other on the arena in less than a week. It would only be troublesome if she had strong ties to the other trainers there. Still, she liked to play with the thought that she could've been allying with Lucas instead of Lyra. What would he be like? She had tried to keep an eye on the boy during training, as well as the other trainers to have an idea of what she would be up against, but so far hadn't been able to gain anything useful. Only that Lucas sucked at knots like her and that his turtwig—the grass-type Dawn had seen while picking her own pokémon— liked hiding in the snares station.

When she told Cynthia about her attempts at trying to make out what the others were good, the mentor was positively surprised. She then encouraged her to especially pay attention to the careers from district five because, quite like Dawn had suspected, they were twins and as such would most likely team up against the opposing trainers.

"Oh, and keep an eye on May Birch too… Steven's his mentor so it's wise to expect the worse of her."

Steven turned out to mean Steven Stone, the champion of the second Quarter Quell from district three, as well as the stony looking man Dawn had met on her way up.

"Really?" Dawn asked dubiously. "He didn't seem very… dangerous."

Her mentor started laughing.

"Yeah, I guess he doesn't," she agreed. "But he's got an eye for hidden talents and knows how to bring those up. He's proven it a lot of times since starting out—a lot of his trainers have made it to the elite four and a few have been crowned champions as well. You remember Phoebe, the champion from a couple years back?"

Dawn thought back. Phoebe Kalea had been a pretty girl with sun kissed skin whose first task in the arena had been decorating her hair with countless of blood red flowers. After that she had proceeded with hunting down the other trainers during nighttime with her ghost type pokémon. The only warning her victims would get, was one of the flowers descending from out of nowhere and by then it would be too late. Capitol had gotten a thrill of that year's games.

"She was Steven's protégé." Cynthia gave Dawn a look that clearly told her not to underestimate the man or his trainers. "Too bad she had to choose a ghost pokémon… those bastards always leave a mark on you. Kinda like you became haunted yourself, from what I hear. She lasted a year, before it all got too much…"

Cynthia didn't appear to be shaken by what she was telling Dawn, but the girl felt horrible. Phoebe had been barely fifteen when she had won, she had escaped almost certain death and yet she wasn't with them any longer—dead by her own hand. It could be Dawn's fate too, for all she knew. Maybe, even if she did manage to get out of the arena alive, she'd be burdened with nightmares or memories so painful that she would see no other way out, but death?

That night it took her a long time to fall asleep.

-x-

The third day of training passed by in a blur. As instructed, Dawn tried to watch the careers, and was a bit surprised to realize that Lucas was hanging around the twins more often than not. She had noticed that they were speaking and sometimes spending lunch breaks together, but it hadn't passed her mind that maybe they could be in an alliance. It worried her a lot.

She didn't trust the twins. From what she gathered they were both ruthless and codependent in everything they did. Neither talked a lot, but when they did, it seemed like one of them was speaking for them both. As expected from careers they were superb with combat, excelling at long range weaponry as well as hand to hand. Pokémon, for them, were only a different type of weapon, suitable for certain situations. Dawn knew they wouldn't think twice about killing Lucas and discarding him, if he became a burden. She actually doubted whether they would go through with the alliance, if they even had one.

Dawn tried to talk to Lucas about it, but the boy didn't listen. She felt awful after the conversation, but soon realized that it was mostly because she couldn't stop worrying about the boy. He still tried to be nice to her, even while keeping his distance and Dawn figured that maybe the boy was feeling bad for the way he was acting. She didn't hold it against him because after all they all had their reasons for the way they did things in the games and most of those reasons aimed for their survival.

Lyra, on the other hand, didn't seem worried about the other trainers. She said she didn't care what they were good or bad at, because one of them was going to kill her anyways. After that confession, Dawn finally got around to asking why she was so determined that she was going to die when there was still a chance for her. The girl only laughed at that.

"Because there _isn't _a chance for me, Dawn stone," she remarked. "I'm choosing to die. I have no family to return to, except my grandparents and I figure they'll be following me in a few years. It's better to die as myself, than to live and be burdened with the deaths of all these innocent kids."

Dawn hadn't thought about that and it troubled her greatly.

Then, suddenly like no time had passed at all, it was already time for the private sessions. Dawn was restless that morning, moving around her breakfast on the plate, not feeling up to eating any of it. She was cut off from her grim thought when Lucas clapped her back. She blinked unable to cover her surprise. Lucas smiled sheepishly.

"Hey," he mumbled, "don't worry about it. I've seen you work with that piplup. You're great and the game makers will easily see that."

She didn't know how to react to the sudden friendliness from the boy. "I'm sure you'll do fine too," she replied almost on autopilot, but managed a real smile at the end.

Lucas scowled. "No way," he said very matter-of-factly. "I suck and it definitely shows. You know what Volkner told me to do? He said," the boy took an annoyed expression to imitate the man better, _"don't try anything grand, brat. Actually, it's better if you don't do much anything at all."_

Dawn laughed despite herself. Lucas looked up, startled but his surprise soon melted into contentment.

"Well," he went on, "I'm gonna show him that I still got some fight in me. Just watch it, sour-face, Lucas Leon is going to get himself a great score."

Dawn grinned brightly. "I'm sure you will."

-x-

When they headed down to wait for their turn, neither could speak from the tension. They stood around for a good ten minutes, before May came out smirking in evident self-satisfaction. Her bandana was giving out a trail of smoke that left both of the Sinnoh trainers wide-eyed.

Lucas was called in first, leaving Dawn to shift nervously in the hallway. It felt like a long time, but she had heard that the sessions took only fifteen minutes at most. It was such a short time to impress the game makers into believing that she could survive. Lost in thought, she was slightly startled when the announcement eventually came.

"_**District four: Dawn DeBlanc."**_

Dawn got up quickly, trying to swallow her fear as she stepped inside the gym.

First thing she noticed was that the room seemed eerily empty without all of the other trainers, pokémon, station instructors and assistants buzzing about. Her steps reverberated in the silent room. Secondly, she realized that the normally empty balcony overlooking the gymnasium was now filled with the game makers. The one sitting in the middle, the head game maker Dawn guessed, was a strangely feline-like man with black hair shaped like ears and a black and red tuxedo, topped with a ridiculously long yellow scarf.

Dawn walked into the middle of the room where her pokémon was already waiting.

"Um, hello," she offered timidly and curtsied. She didn't know if she was supposed to hold her act during the private session, but she figured it didn't hurt being polite. People in the contests always curtsied and bowed and introduced themselves and then their pokémon. "I am Dawn DeBlanc and this is my piplup, Jo."

The nickname roused a round of murmurs from the game makers. The one with the scarf raised an intrigued eyebrow, but otherwise his posture didn't change.

Uncertain if she'd done something funny, Dawn made an effort to perform as fast and flawless as she could, just to get out of there quickly. She had thought about her session the previous night with Cynthia and they had decided together that she should show them her game of hiding fish and making Jo fetch them for her, as well as have Jo perform some of the water-moves Dawn had taught it.

She told Jo to wait as she ran to the cabinet containing the treats for the pokémon and snatched out three fish as well as a handful of oran berries. Then she jogged to the snares station, which provided excellent hiding places. The next fish she took to the pools, throwing it as far as she could. The last one she took into one of the makeshift shelters. Pleased with the hiding places she returned to the middle of the room and crouched on Jo's level.

"Jo, go get it!"

The piplup wasted no time, skipping forward with considerable speed. The one in the pool was the first one, as usual. The second took more time, but in the end Jo found it from the shelter, and the final remaining fish was almost as easy as the first. The penguin brought them all to Dawn's feet and crooned. Dawn offered it the berries and ruffled its feathers while it made quick work of the treats.

Next, she found herself a flask from one of the nearby stations and snapped the pokémon back to attention.

"Jo, water for me, please," she asked. The penguin reacted like always to the phrase, carefully positioning its beak and sprouting out a stream of drinkable water that filled the flask. When the flask was almost full an idea hit Dawn. They hadn't tried anything like it before, but she trusted the penguin.

"Jo, ice!" She yelled and the penguin took a second to understand before releasing a breath of frosty air that turned the water still in the air into ice. Dawn grabbed the icicle before it hit the ground and threw it to the direction of the human shaped targets. It hit one slightly off center, but she was rather proud of her accuracy.

Then she turned to face the game makers, thanked them and curtsied once more, before steadily walking out of the room. She had a good feeling about the session.

-x-

Everyone on team four, Dawn and Lucas, their mentors, escorts and prep teams, as well as Riley, were gathered around in the common room that night to watch the scores. The adults drank wine—Cynthia offered some to Dawn too, but the girl refused. She never would've had the chance in Hearthome, alcohol was way too expensive for them to afford it and besides, it didn't cause much else but trouble. Lucas accepted the offer, too nervous to do otherwise.

The program started with an interview with the head game maker, whose name turned out to be Stefan Grimsley. Ms. Shauntal, the Games' nominated interviewee, and the man exchanged pointless pleasantries and made jokes that were lame in Dawn's opinion, before talking for a while about that year's trainers and what they were shaping out to be like. Lucian sighed a lot when Ms. Shauntal was on view, which was always, and after the tenth glare from Volkner the purple haired escort admitted that he was a huge fan of her books.

Then, finally, it was time for the scores. Cynthia summoned herself a pen and a notebook out of nowhere and began scribbling down as soon as the first score flashed on screen. As usual, they started with the first district. The serious looking boy with the eyes that creeped Dawn out had done poorly, only managing a three out of ten. The girl had faired loads better with a seven. Lyra's partner received a six and Lyra herself a five. District three's boy pulled out a five as well. May Birch topped the game so far with an eight, before it was suddenly Lucas' face in the television.

"A four?" Lucas cried out in disbelief as the number flashed on the screen.

Volkner grunted. "Good job kid. Now the others won't see you as a threat and you can surprise them."

It was, admittedly, one of the nicest things Volkner had ever said to the boy, but Dawn was too distracted with her own information flashing into view. Warmth pooled in her stomach in anticipation as she waited for the score. In the end she heard Fantina hiss it before her eyes registered the number on the screen.

"_Seven?"_ the purple haired escort shrieked. "Mon dieu, ma petite! Tu es extraordinaire!"

Cynthia beamed at her. "That's my Dawn stone."

The girl's heart skipped a beat. Of course the woman didn't know it, but they were the same words her mother had used when she'd said her good byes. It brought back all the home sickness. She hadn't had time to think about how much she missed her home during training but now the aching returned with doubled force. But more than that it worked as a remainder: _this is why you're going to get back home. This is why you're fighting._

Like always, the careers received high scores, a nine each. Still, Dawn felt like she could take whatever they threw at her, because after all she had something to fight for.

-x-

Lots of things happening this time! Surprising alliances, scores, some past champions… what's next?

In case anyone is wondering, I chose to use the pronoun "it" when referring to Jo the piplup because Dawn doesn't actually have any idea of its gender. Also, the reason why Dawn didn't get an even better score despite her almost perfect performance is because the game makers thought her to be soft and friendly, and as such an easy target for the more ruthless trainers. We'll have to see if that prediction turns out to be true or not.

Oh, and ignore the fact that neither Lyra nor Dawn has ever seen Thelma and Louise. I was unable to resist the reference. It's an awesome movie, y'all, even with the double suicide.


	5. Dawn: part 4

**4. **

-x-

On the last day of training only Dawn, Lyra and the boy from Lyra's district turned up at the gym. Lucas hadn't even been out of his room when Dawn had left—she figured the boy was upset by his score. She could sympathize, but still felt a tad disappointed having been hoping that they could have spent the last hours of training together. Now it seemed that the boy was back to avoiding her.

Lyra told her to get over it.

"Some people just are dumb," she offered.

It didn't make Dawn feel any better.

As a final test before training time was over the girls decided to have a playful pokémon battle, but were soon stopped by the blue teethed instructor. Apparently all fighting between tributes was forbidden, including battling with their pokémon. When Lyra asked the instructor how they were supposed to battle in the arena if they couldn't practice, the instructor told them to get out of the gym and go prepare for the interviews or something. Defeated, the girls left without their pokémon and went their separate ways, wishing each other luck for the evening.

Dawn ate some lunch and had a meeting with Cynthia, before heading down to be fussed over by her pep team. Cheryl did her hair this time, going with a pretty hairdo similar to the one she'd had in the opening ceremony. This time they added a pink hair band that contrasted quite nicely with Dawn's blue-black hair.

"Riley's going for something different with your interview dress," Marley revealed while adding Dawn makeup. "He says that it's not enough to make you sweet and girly… he needs an edge, something to make you memorable."

That made Dawn eager to meet the stylist again. Luckily Marley and Cheryl were soon finished with her. This time though, they didn't leave but instead moved behind the folding screen that divided the room in two. Dawn fidgeted on her seat for a few minutes before finally the man walked in, dressed in his usual blue outfit. Riley checked her appearance and chatted a bit about how the girl was perfect for what he had planned, until Dawn was squirming with anticipation.

"Come on then," Riley said with a laugh, sensing the girl's obvious distress. "Let's not keep you waiting any longer."

He led Dawn by the shoulders to the back of the room, which had previously been hidden. Marley and Cheryl were holding an adorable dress that was missing the front. Riley left her to be dressed by the women, who made sure that she wasn't looking too closely. Because of them, she wasn't able to get a good look of herself before she stepped out from behind the folding screen and in front of the mirrors.

She had a black swimsuit-like skin suit with white lace on the neck and a pink trail that descended from her hips and had folds resembling those of a flamenco dress. Her shoes were a tad darker shade of pink than the trail, matching the cuff on her neck as well as the hair band.

"I used the old-fashioned can-can dancers of Sinnoh as an inspiration," Riley whispered scooping close to Dawn's ear. "I thought you might like it."

Dawn couldn't speak. She _did_ like it—actually, she _more _than liked it. She absolutely _adored _the outfit.

When they had decided that she would be playing the good girl angle, she had feared that they would cover her in frills and bows and stuff and make her seem like a small child. Dawn knew that she was young, the youngest trainer in the games that year, but even then she was no baby. She was just beginning to reach womanhood and she rather liked to be treated like she was one of the girls, not like she was too young to really understand. Life back home, though admittedly easier than the lives of those on the poorer districts, was tough and carved strong men and women out of the girls and boys who struggled to make their way in the world. More than anything Dawn wanted to be an inspiration to those boys and girls and the outfit, which Riley had designed for her, was perfect for that.

"Oh, but there's one thing missing!" The man suddenly remembered. He snapped his fingers and Cheryl hurried to fetch something from behind the screen. The woman then returned with a large boa that seemed to be made out of something even fluffier than the usual feathers.

"Mareep wool," Riley revealed, gently offering the boa to the girl. "It'll look quite dramatic from the distant. It's the perfect last touch to the picture, wouldn't you say?"

Dawn had to agree.

-x-

"_**Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome to you all and happy 61**__**st**__** Trainer**____**Games!"**_

The audience responded to Ms. Shauntal's greeting with a thundering applause that resounded all the way to the backstage where Dawn and all of the other trainers participating in the games waited in various states of distress. Only the boy from Kanto, District One, and the twins from Unova appeared to be immune to the effect of the roaring crowd.

"_**This is the moment we've all been waiting for… without further ado, I present you the trainers of the five districts! As usual we shall start with the first. Please welcome the girl whose razor sharp senses impressed this year's game makers greatly: Leandra Periwinkle, or as she prefers to be called, Leaf!"**_

The girl, who, Dawn noted, had been dressed quite naturally, took a deep breath before marching to the stage like she hadn't been pacing around just a minute before. Dawn had to admire her ability to steel her nerves and appear completely in control of the situation, even when the eyes of the whole federation were on her.

Shauntal chatted with Leaf for exactly four minutes before sending her off and calling the next one in. The boy from Leaf's district was really quiet, only giving out short answers or merely remaining silent. Soon enough it was Lyra's turn. Dawn brushed the girl's hand for encouragement as she walked past her.

From what could be heard backstage the interview amused the capitol audience greatly. Lyra was herself, rambling fast and cracking jokes left and right as she talked—it was different from the way trainers usually acted and it seemed that even the hostess herself was a bit surprised.

The boy from Lyra's district turned out to be a funny guy as well. It made Dawn wonder why the pair didn't seem to get along. Maybe there was something behind it like what he and Lucas had.

Dawn wasn't really prepared when Ms. Shauntal was suddenly calling her name. She stumbled forward from her seat, doing her best to steady her breathing and remember what she was supposed to do.

Like in the opening ceremony, the noise and the brightness hit her like a concrete wall, but this time she was prepared for it and didn't let it dazzle her. She kept on walking forward smiling and waving timidly to the audience, who gasped at the sight of her and started whistling. Riley had yet again outdone himself with her outfit.

"Dawn, welcome, please sit down," Ms. Shauntal gestured towards the comfy looking white leather armchair next to her.

Dawn settled on the chair carefully, worrying about wrinkling her dress. "Thank you Ms. Shauntal," she said. "I'm glad for the honor of being here."

The audience swooned and the hostess formed a surprised 'o' with her mouth.

"My, you're polite," she exclaimed. "Trying to win points, are you?"

"No, no, no…" Dawn blushed and quickly shook her head as the audience laughed. "It's all thanks to my mother. She taught me to be polite no matter what and I do try to listen to her at all times." She took a serious, but shy expression. "I have much to thank her for, you know."

Shauntal grinned. "I can believe that. Your mother must be very proud of you." She turned to the audience. "Right, folks?"

The resulting applause was near deafening.

"So, you have a mother back in… Hearthome City, right?"

Dawn nodded eagerly.

"Tell us a bit about home, Dawn. How does it feel to be so far away from your family?"

"At first I was terribly homesick," Dawn said truthfully and the audience gave sympathetic sigh. "But after I started training with Jo, it became easier to bear… she helped me settle in, kind of."

"Jo?" Ms. Shauntal asked curiously and Dawn blushed again, as if she'd totally forgotten that the others didn't know her nickname for the piplup, when in fact she had baited the hostess on purpose. It worked and the audience laughed.

"Ah, um, my piplup, I mean," Dawn hurried to explain, all flustered. "I named her Jo because… well my mother's name is Johanna."

The revelation resulted in another thunderous applause.

"So I take it you've grown fond of your pokémon, then." Shauntal smiled at her after the noise had calmed down. "What about the other trainers? Any plans of alliances?"

Dawn hesitated for a second. "Well, I've been spending time with Lyra… she's really funny we work great as a team, so it'll be really hard to beat us when we're together."

"Make a note of that folks, the all powerful girl duo is ready to face the games! Look out for Lyra, the funny girl from district 2, and Dawn, the little angel of district 4!" The hostess clapped along the audience, before turning back to face Dawn. "Thank you for your time, dear… it's been lovely talking to you."

Dawn nodded and beamed. "My pleasure."

As she walked away from the stage, everyone whistled and shouted and she kept grinning—she couldn't help it. All in all, it had to be one of the top moments of her life.

-x-

After her interview Dawn stuck around to watch Lucas from the sidelines. The boy wouldn't probably want to talk to her, but she still wanted to know how he managed. She couldn't stop caring about the boy even when she knew she should.

Ms. Shauntal and Lucas talked about his life back in Sinnoh and Dawn learned that Lucas actually had a big family, complete with three younger siblings. He explained very calmly that he was going to win the games for those sisters and brothers of his, who looked up to their eldest brother as a hero. It worked like a charm on the audience. Lucas was keeping his cool like in the opening ceremony, going with Volkner's plan.

The hostess asked him about his score but he dismissed it, giving off the impression that it may have been his intention all along to get a bad score. Dawn's smile dropped, because she knew the truth.

Then Ms. Shauntal abruptly asked him about his relationship with Dawn. Making the girl backstage freeze for a moment. Lucas wasn't fazed, but something in his eyes shifted and for as long as he talked about Dawn he showed more emotion than during the rest of the interview.

"Dawn's really nice," Lucas started hesitantly. "Almost too nice really. She's looking out for me, even when I try to keep my distance. I can't imagine her in the games… she just seems… too _good _for them."

The audience cheered wildly and Ms. Shauntal hinted that maybe the boy was feeling more than he let on. On the sidelines, Dawn stood alone in the dark and felt her heart break again and again.

Lucas spared her a guilty glance when he brushed past her walking off the stage. She remained still for a minute longer, for long enough to hear that the twins would have a joined interview, before following the boy. She met Cynthia outside and the woman congratulated her on a successful interview, before leading her gently into an elevator and back upstairs into their quarters.

That night it was hard to fall asleep, knowing that the next morning they would all be hurdled into a hovercraft and dropped into the arena. Well, not directly into the arena, but still. It was a terrifying thought that made her realize just how much she was not yet ready for this. But there was no helping her fate—she was going to the arena and that was that. No amount of worrying would let her escape the inevitable future.

She had accepted the possibility of her own death almost immediately after the reaping. She had checked the facts and acknowledged them, acknowledged that her chances were one to ten, before deciding that she would still try, if only because her mother wished so. So why was she scared, now? Why was her resolution faltering? She wanted to live, of course she did, and going to the arena meant near certain death, but that wasn't the reason her insides were turning to mush, not exactly.

Instead, the reason for that was the knowledge that she had no choice. There was no alternative. The hopelessness of _that_ was almost too much to bear. Feeling far too restless to remain in her bed she slipped out of her room. She didn't know where she was going, but soon enough she found a stairway leading up and decided to check upstairs. She passed one more level before she came across a door. Opening it, she realized she had come to the roof of the training center.

There was a figure by the far edge. Dawn crept closer, only to recognize it as the silent boy from District One. Taking a deep breath she decided to get a grip and moved to stand beside the boy. He merely turned his head to check who the newcomer was, before resuming his hobby of staring into the distance. Something about the boy and his auburn brown eyes set Dawn on the edge, but out in the cool night breeze and with the stars twinkling on the sky he looked really_ beautiful_.

"Last night of freedom," Dawn murmured. He didn't respond, but then again, she hadn't really counted on it. "Feels kinda surreal, doesn't it?"

Silence lapsed between them. The girl watched the city below them, neon lights blinking on par with the stars, people moving up and down the road. In the Capitol the night before the games was a celebration. Back in the districts people would be shut down in their homes, huddled together with their families. For them there was nothing joyous about at the games—they only brought suffering.

Dawn mused on that for a while longer, feeling herself calm down in the crisp air.

"It's such a pity," she started again after some time. "They say that we're privileged, getting a small sample of the Capitol before we're sent off to be slaughtered for their amusement. But… I think it's actually _them_ who're missing out on the genuine way people in the districts lead their lives. The love shared between a family and the ties that knit us together even when it's tough… They don't know what that's like here and I guess… I guess that's a part of the reason why they so want to experience it, through the games, I mean."

The boy actually looked at Dawn, understanding shining in his eyes. She gave him a sad little smile.

"You're too soft," he said, not mean but like he was stating a fact. "You won't last like that."

"Maybe I won't." She shrugged. "Or maybe I will… there's no way of knowing beforehand. It's all up to chance."

Smiling drily, the boy muttered: "May the odds be ever in your favor."

She chuckled. "You too."

When she was walking back down she passed an angry, spiky-haired boy who felt really familiar. She was sure she hadn't seen her during the week and kept wondering about where she remembered him from. Only when she was falling asleep she recognized him as District One's champion from the 59th games. He must've been a there as a mentor and she wondered briefly if he was coming to get his trainer down, but soon fell asleep.

-x-

Cynthia's advice for her the next morning was simple enough:

"Eat. It could be the last good meal you get. Make sure it counts."

After that knights came up to take Dawn and Lucas to the hovercraft hangar. The girl's mentor reminded her that she would be there in the launch room, so there was no need for her to panic. Dawn wasn't sure if she would've been capable of such, when her mind was so blank. She spent the flight staring into the wall, only rousing from her mental white-out when one of the knights came around to stick a tracker into her arm.

From the hovercraft she was escorted into her launch room, where Cynthia, true to her words, was waiting. There was also Jo's pokéball on the table and a neatly folded pile of clothes, which Dawn quickly changed into. Once she was ready Cynthia made her sit down, saying that it would calm her. She wasn't even nervous—she was still feeling numb quite like she'd felt the whole morning.

"You know how this goes," Cynthia said gravely. "Once in the arena you'll be on your own so you'll have to make your own decisions but hear me out, one last time."

"Sure," Dawn mumbled weakly.

The blonde woman sighed. "Stay out of the Cornucopia. You know that the initial fight can turn into a real bloodbath. The careers will definitely try to seize control of the area, so unless you want to deal with them you get the hell out of there as soon as possible. Only grab supplies if they happen to be on your way. You have Jo to help you, so you don't really need anything else to survive, remember that."

The girl nodded. The previous year, when Iris had been on the arena, only three of the trainers had survived the fight at the cornucopia. Because of that the game makers had sent in as many as four wildcards, people who volunteered to fight on the arena without any training. Dawn could only hope that they wouldn't send in anyone this year—it was hard enough as it was.

"Head towards water," Cynthia continued. "Since you have a water-type pokémon, water will be a clear advantage. There's always more water on the arena than it initially seems, so try and find a source that's somehow sheltered. Also, since you wanted to stick around Lyra, make sure that quit the alliance when it's still possible. It won't be fun if you're the last two people left on the arena."

Dawn frowned. She couldn't even imagine killing the other girl.

The mentor handed her the pokéball and she tied it to her belt.

"You can do it, Dawn stone," Cynthia promised her and then, on a whim, pulled her close. The girl hugged her tight until the voice commanding her to get on the launch plate boomed in the room.

Dawn didn't want to let go. She didn't want to be killed. She wanted to stay here with Cynthia. The panic that hadn't crossed her mind all morning spread in her body like a forest fire. She let out a choked sob.

"Go on dear," the woman murmured gently. "I'll be waiting for you. It's all going to be alright, love. You know it is."

Dawn stepped into the tube, which immediately slid shut and began rising up. Something snapped inside Dawn. She lost her mind, clawing on the glass and screaming as the mentor watched, holding back her tears, but no matter what she did, she couldn't get out. Something about that realization brought peace to her and she went limp, leaning against the tube's walls and looked up where she could see the sun shining on a clear blue sky.

It was a beautiful day to die.

-x-

Her first impression of the arena was the ridiculous thought that she had actually somehow managed to skip the fighting to death part and had instead gone straight to heaven. She was standing on an incredibly beautiful field of flowers that was surrounded with a vibrant deciduous forest, not one bit similar to the ones they had back in Sinnoh. A river flowed through the flowers and suddenly Dawn realized that she wasn't in heaven after all, but on the arena, staring at the golden cornucopia along nine other trainers anxiously standing on their launch plates. The timer on top of the cornucopia was already at 34 and counting down.

Snapping into attention Dawn looked around, spotting Lyra some twenty meters to her left. The girl nodded to her but even she couldn't manage a smile. On the ground to her left was also a back bag, which Dawn supposed she could snatch easily while running. Left was the right direction, anyways, because the river flowed that way. There would be a lake somewhere in the forest.

The countdown broke the natural silence of the meadow, cutting her from her thoughts. She glanced around and her eyes fell on Lucas. The boy was even further to the left than Lyra.

"_**Three…" **_

Dawn stared at the boy. He was obviously terrified.

"_**Two…"**_

She shook her head, like shaking the boy off her mind, fixing her gaze on the back bag.

"_**One…"**_

Sweat prickled on Dawn's forehead. This was it.

"_**Ladies and gentlemen, let the 61**__**st**__** Trainer Games begin!"**_

Dawn was off her plate before she even registered it herself, dashing towards the bag. At the same time Lyra started running towards the edge of the forest. She could hear the sounds of pokémon being released from their balls already, but it seemed that luck was on her side and nobody was paying her much attention. Nobody, except Lucas. The boy had hopped off his plate fast enough but had then paused, unable to decide where to go. He was like glued to the ground, gaze darting between the forest, the fighting going on by the cornucopia and Dawn, who managed to fling the bag on her back.

Being frozen on the spot, Lucas couldn't see the boy from May's district approaching him from behind.

"Lucas, run!" Dawn screamed, unable to help herself.

The boy startled and was on his feet in less than a second, but the other trainer had apparently set his sights on Lucas and wasn't about to give up. Dawn was already reaching for her pokéball, running forward. She could see Lyra in the corner of her vision, running back towards them, but didn't let herself worry about that. If she could get Jo out before the boy caught Lucas, maybe she would be able to rescue him. She had to. She couldn't just let Lucas die.

Something hit the boy from District Three, causing him to still his running. He looked over and saw Lyra standing completely still, taunting him. He then made a sharp turn and before Dawn could react he had already reached Lyra, tackling the girl to the ground.

"Get out of here!" Lyra was yelling. Lucas was already running off into the other direction, never having stopped. Instead of doing as she was told, Dawn darted towards the boy who was now punching the screaming girl on the ground. She didn't even get half-way there when suddenly both trainers were engulfed in a flaming inferno.

Dawn screeched into a stop, backing away a few steps and watching mortified as the boy, who had seconds before been beating another child to death, howled in pain trying to get away from the flames. Still trapped underneath the other trainer, Lyra remained silent and motionless. May Birch was walking towards the fire with a smirk playing on her lips. On the ground by her side the little fire-type bird she'd picked was coughing up small flames. The trainer glanced up and her eyes locked with Dawn's.

Dawn turned around and ran.

-x-

**A/N: **Things are getting kinda heated…

Wild cards are an idea of my own. There's no such a thing in the books but I figured that, since there are only ten trainers in the Trainer Games, the Capitol has needed to come up with something. They don't want the games to end too soon, right? So to spice things up they send in wild cards in case many trainers die right at the beginning.

There are a few things that bother me about this chapter, so I'm probably going to edit it later. Right now I'm too tired for that… Sorry!


	6. Dawn: part 5

**Dawn: part 5 **

-x-

Dawn was running through the woods. She had no clue where she was going, no time to pause and check her surroundings. She only knew that she had to keep running, keep moving ahead and away from the cornucopia, so she did and didn't stop until her legs gave away underneath her and she crashed down onto the luckily soft leaf mattress. The world was spinning around her and vaguely she realized that she _still_ needed to keep moving, needed to find cover and at the very least stop lying around there in the open where she could just as well be eaten by the wild pokémon of the arena or be found by the other trainers.

Like May Birch.

Suddenly, she felt bile rise up to her throat and she choked, forcing herself to roll to the side before she gave over, puking the contents of her stomach over the leaves on the ground. Thoroughly disgusted and spent, Dawn managed to drag herself a bit further, under a tree that she figured gave somewhat sufficient cover. She let her head fall against the bark and looked up to the sky. It wasn't even getting dark yet, barely past midday and here she was, already a pathetic whimpering mess.

She wiped her mouth on her sleeve, tears burning in her eyes. Two people had died, two children, right before her eyes and she'd been immobilized with fear, unable to do anything to help them. What worse, it had been Lyra, who had been nothing but brave and smart and full of life. Lyra, who didn't deserve to die anymore than the others, and still had. She knew that there was nothing she could've done to prevent it and deep down a voice that sounded bit like Cynthia's was telling her that it was better this way, but all that did nothing to stop the guilt and pain from twisting inside her and weighing on her chest like a stone.

"I'm so sorry," she sobbed out, letting the tears fall. "I'm so sorry, Lyra… so, so sorry."

Moments passed and she let the anguish wash over her. Distractedly, she began to wonder whether it would be better to just lie down right then and there and wait for death… she would suffer from thirst and hunger, but it couldn't be as bad as what Lyra had gone through, could it? She was fairly sure it couldn't. All she needed to do was to close her eyes and never open them again. It was like falling asleep.

Much too soon she remembered that reality was not as kind as her dreams. She was in the Games and being filmed at the very moment, if not live on national television, and that the game makers wouldn't let her fade away in peace like that. They would make her regret the decision to give up before her imminent death—maybe she'd be eaten alive by a vicious wild pokémon, helpless to defend herself, or maybe they would lead the other trainers to her, possibly the twins or better yet _May_. Even the thought of the girl brought bitter taste to her mouth, although it could've been the remains of the vomit too. It also sent an unimaginable wave of fury through her and very near knocked her out cold.

Eyes blazing she stumbled upwards, falling once or twice in the process, but that wasn't important. Swaying slightly she marched forward, only dimly aware of her surroundings. In her previous panic, she had been running the wrong way and was now on a much higher ground than before. There was one quirk in it though, because her location gave her an excellent view of nearly the whole arena.

Soon enough she came to a cliff that looked down over the forest and the river that flowed down from the hills. Almost hidden by the dense woods, she caught a glimpse of the cornucopia and the meadow. Anger flared inside her.

"I'll remember you," Dawn whispered to the wind, hiding the burning behind silent determination. "I'll remember you Lyra. I'll win this for you and I'll keep you in my memory."

She looked around and spotted a small blue flower right by her right foot. Bending down she carefully picked the flower and smiled sadly for a bit. The other girl definitely would've known what kind of a flower it was and how it could be used. Dawn stood back up and held the flower in front of her, feeling the breeze that kept pulling it along.

"I promise," she said with a firm voice and nodded.

Then she let the flower go.

It quickly flew off, falling and rising with the wind. Dawn watched until it was only a dot in the far horizon that soon completely disappeared from sight. There were two cannon shots then, which, she figured, meant that the fighting at the cornucopia had eased down. Only two casualties then, both which she had witnessed with her own two eyes.

The games had just begun.

-x-

Only a few minutes after the simple memorial Dawn's first chimecho landed on a nearby bush. She had paused to figure out directions and check the contents of her back bag, when her ears caught the faint cry of the pokémon. It had a small parcel tied to its tail and when she cautiously approached it let out a cry of what the girl supposed was approval. She removed the parcel from the chimecho and the pokémon flew off.

Ripping the package open, Dawn first came across a note that almost fell off when wind caught on it. _Sorry for your loss, _it read with Cynthia's neat handwriting. Dawn's lip trembled slightly as she folded the note and stuck it inside her jacket's breast pocket. Then she returned her attention to the parcel, pulling out a flask, beautifully decorated with floral engravings.

Her mouth fell open with surprise and delight. Before the arrival of the chimecho she had been going through her belongings and had been disappointed to notice that she didn't have anything to hold water in. It was unusual to receive something like that in the games, especially so early on. Smiling an honest smile she looked around, trying to figure out where she should express her gratitude. She ended up looking up to the sky, seeing as the chimecho had come from there and she really didn't know how to spot hidden cameras.

"Thank you," she whispered as sweetly as she could manage with her raspy throat. "Thank you so much."

She reached for Jo's pokéball and listened for any noises that could indicate the presence of another person or wild pokémon nearby, before calling out the piplup. It looked absolutely baffled out in the sunlight. Dawn figured it hadn't been out much, living in the training center.

"Jo." She held up her new flask and the penguin snapped into attention. "I would like some water, please."

The piplup let out a cry and raised its beak, producing a spray of water in its throat. Dawn filled the flask and drank a bit. The cool water felt lovely, calming her throat that was still sore from vomiting. She packed the flask into her bag and swung it on her back, remembering to scratch Jo for a job well done. After a moment of indecision she picked up the penguin and it settled onto her arms. Jo wasn't heavy and it was honestly comforting to hold the bird so she decided that she would carry it around.

"Come on then," she mumbled to the penguin.

Jo cried out happily and they started down the hill. It was wiser to avoid the river so Dawn had come up with an alternative route that would hopefully take her past the cornucopia and towards the lake, which she had seen in the distance. It would probably take her the whole day, if not more, to get there but it was better than nothing. The bag held some dried fruit and meat and Jo would be perfectly happy with the berries found in the woods so it didn't even matter so much whether she reached the lake by night or not.

Her only problem was that it could prove challenging to find cover when she couldn't climb trees like she knew a lot of trainers did. Besides, she couldn't tie knots to save her life, not that she had any rope, so sleeping in a tree was out of the question. She would have to try and find some other solution.

Walking in the forest turned out to be quite nice. Jo was alert on her arms, letting out a small cry of warning whenever one of the wild pokémon got too close and Dawn honestly felt safe, unlike before. It wasn't too dark with the filtered green light shining through the leaves and her clothes were a perfect fit for the environment and climate, just like they were supposed to be.

While she traveled she thought back on the previous games and the arenas from them. Three years before, on Phoebe's year, it had been a really tropical place with sand beaches and saltwater. Iris's arena had been a rocky, mountainous one. She made a face when she thought about herself there and realized that, all in all, the current arena was a good one… its only flaw being the unrecognizable plants. The climate was a lot milder than in Sinnoh, so there were loads more flowers and trees and berries, many of which she couldn't put a name on. Luckily though, Lyra had taught her a fair lot during training so she was able to distinguish at least some of them as edible and some as poisonous, so she wouldn't have to worry about dying from that.

Darkness fell on the arena later than at home and much faster. Dawn hadn't reached the lake by then, but she guessed that she was close. It was no use trying to get there in the dark, though—she would only get herself lost like that, so she put her mind to finding herself a shelter for the night. In a few minutes, she located a large, thick-leaved bush that turned out to be hollow on the inside. She crawled underneath and fiddled around for a while, until she was pleased with her position and certain that she couldn't be seen unless somebody took a real close look.

Positioning her bag as a pillow and letting Jo make a nest onto her stomach she lied down and sighed. It had been a horrible day, if not completely so, but at least she was still alive. Like an answer to her thoughts the federation's anthem suddenly sounded from seemingly out of nowhere. She froze before relaxing again when she remembered what was going on. It was the death toll. They would be showing the so far dead trainers on the sky, but as she already knew who had died she figured it would be pointless to get out of her bush just for that.

Instead she let her eyes fall closed and fell asleep listening to the melody.

-x-

In the morning Dawn woke up to someone nibbling her fingers. Opening her eyes slowly, she was faced with Jo's expectant stare. Smiling, she listened for any sounds before carefully rising up and crawling out from the bush, Jo following her keenly. They wandered around for a bit before the girl spotted a bush of oran berries and the pokémon was more than happy to treat itself to them. Dawn herself pulled out the dried meat from her back bad and munched on it while trying to estimate how long it would take them to reach the lake—another few hours, probably, if they kept on a steady pace.

That in mind she called back the pokémon, figuring that she'd move faster without having to carry it and set forth. The forest felt different without the penguin by her side. She was constantly vary of where she was going, suddenly remembering that there could be snares hidden on the ground. Bug pokémon buzzed about around her and she wowed that if she ever got out of the arena, she would buy herself a lifelong stack of repels. Not that there ever were pokémon in Hearthome, really—it was the time of separation after all.

Around noon she saw the first glimmer of light reflecting from water's surface somewhere behind the trees. Picking up her pace she was soon running towards the lake. Just as she burst out from the woods onto its shores she realized how bad of an idea it had been. There was already someone by the lake, the boy from Lyra's district. Dawn froze as the boy looked up from his simple camp, leaping to his feet.

She stared at him and he stared back both trapped in their place. Neither had their pokémon out, so it was kind of a stale mate—whoever reached out for their belt first would break the spell. She felt ridiculous when she realized she didn't even know his name and here she was, thinking about the best way to kill him.

Suddenly, the boy relaxed and raised his hands to the air where Dawn could see them, like a sign of surrender. Dawn straightened up from the defensive crouch she had instinctively fallen into and offered him a curious look. She couldn't let her guard down just yet, not without knowing what the boy was up to.

"Hey," he said, jerking his head a bit. His voice was deeper than she'd expected and thick with a country twang. "You were Lyra's friend, right? Dawn, was it?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah… and you're the boy from her region, though I can't say I remember your name."

Taking a few steps back he grinned. "That's alright, you won't have any need for it." He sat back down on the rock he had been sitting before Dawn's abrupt arrival and gestured to the other rocks around it. "Sit down for a while, girlie girl. Though, I'm not suggestin' an alliance, mind you. I'm just sayin' that any friend of hers is a friend of mine too, so I won't harm ya. I owe her at least that much."

Dawn nodded again and carefully trotted towards the rocks. The boy seemed amused by her doubting expression and cracked up. Chuckling to himself, he picked up the spear he had been carving with a knife while Dawn sat down and let her back bag fall to the ground. They stayed like that for a while, Dawn figuring that she couldn't call out Jo if she didn't want to risk being killed despite the boy's words and the boy carving his spear in peace. When she dug out her flask the boy spoke up again.

"That's one hell of present, you got there." The boy whistled eyeing the flask, clearly impressed. "What'd you do? Sing 'n dance?"

Dawn blushed. "No," she muttered angrily making him smirk. After a while she added quietly. "It was a sympathy gift, I guess."

He looked up, clearly not having expected that.

"You're really something," he said. Dawn had no idea what he meant. "But hey, chin up. I don't know how Lyra went down, but she must've done it her way. That's the Lyra I know and that's the only one there ever was."

She smiled a bit, but then realized that sounded awfully like there was a longer time than a mere week behind this boy and their deceased friend. "You knew her for a long time, then?"

Something passed on the boy's face and he turned his face away. "Since we were lil' babies."

Dawn didn't know what to say. "I'm… sorry."

He barked out a bitter laugh. "Don't be. It was a bumpy ride an' I wouldn't wanna change one second of it… but with her gone, I'm gonna have to try and win so you can feel sorry about that." He paused to give Dawn an apologetic look. "Excuse me, if I wish we don't meet again… You meant a great deal to her, y'know, and that alone is enough of a reason for me. I don't wanna fight you, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

She started to open her mouth to reply, but was cut short because her stomach started grumbling. The boy gave her a wry look and she blushed yet again.

"You have that penguin thing, right?" he asked and she made a small sound to say yes. "Well, call it out. I don't mind. Yours can get us some fish and mine can roast it. Do we have a deal?"

"Sure," Dawn agreed smiling.

They reached for their pokéballs at the same time.

-x-

Jo right on her trail, Dawn waded into the lukewarm water. For a few moments the piplup seemed to be at a loss of what to do when the fish he was trying to find kept swimming off, but soon enough the pokémon's natural hunting instincts took over. After that, the penguin kept bringing Dawn goldeens and magikarps until she was laughing and crying for the pokémon to stop. Jo seemed very pleased with itself while eating the fish Dawn had rewarded it with.

She brought the remaining fish for the boy and his nameless quilava. It had evolved the previous day while battling with the trainers from district five and Dawn was thoroughly impressed with the boy's skills. While they cooked the fish with quilava's flamethrower they both agreed that the twins were scary as hell when they moved in sync and that the boy was lucky to have escaped. He had a small scratch on his leg and the pokémon had acquired a battle wound on his ear but luckily they both seemed to be healing just fine.

Dawn felt awkward having to call him 'the boy' inside her mind but she didn't want to privy. He hadn't told her his name and it was her own fault she didn't remember it. It had possibly started with an E, but then again she couldn't be sure.

They ate and he told her stories from his childhood. He and Lyra had lived on the East coast of Johto, in a small town called New Bark. School had been miles away and they had had to run there every morning and back again every evening. When they had been nine or so, a stray marill had started following Lyra around and the two kids had taken it to their town's pokémon professor Elm. The man was district-born, but was renowned for his abilities in the capitol and had thus been placed to New Bark town to inspect the district's pokémon. He received a nice sum for his work and he had rewarded Lyra and the boy for their good work.

Dawn smiled at the story. She wished she could've been there—could've known Lyra for a longer time.

Lyra's parents had died in a fishing accident when she was twelve. She had then moved to live with her grandparents in Goldenrod and the boy hadn't seen her for a couple of years.

"Not until the reaping," he mused with barely veiled anger. "What a lovely surprise that was. We agreed that we would try to keep out of each other's way on the arena, she made me wow on it. If she hadn't, I could've saved her, but… maybe it was for the best, this way."

In turn, Dawn told him about Sinnoh and contests and anything else she could think of. Honestly, she wasn't even sure the boy was interested, but he kept on listening politely enough. He seemed abrasive when you met him, but beneath his cover he was kind of a nice boy—a nice kid like Lyra had been.

"Well then," the boy said after the meal and called back his quilava. "I better get going before it gets too dark. I'm actually lookin' for the girl and boy from one. You haven't happened to see 'em?"

Dawn suddenly remembered the rooftop conversation with the silent boy. She shook her head. Jo was resting on her lap after eating a large goldeen by itself. The boy pulled a face and rose to his feet.

"I hadn't hoped," he mumbled and started collecting his belongings. It seemed that he had managed a better bag than Dawn, one with some knives, rope, and bandages, all of which were useful in the arena. He picked up his finished spear weighing it in his hands. "I made a deal with the girl before the games begun, but I lost track of her in the initial fighting. The boy I'm lookin for, cause… well, honestly he seems like an easy enough target with that score of his."

For a second he looked absolutely disgusted with himself. Dawn could understand why. She didn't judge him either way.

"You're going hunting for him?" she asked. "Isn't that like voluntarily seeking out trouble?"

He shrugged. "I'd rather find it myself than have it find me when I'm not prepared."

"Makes sense," she said and thought about it. "I guess I'll have to think of something to do then, without you here."

He grinned. "Aw, you'll miss me," he walked over and ruffled her hair affectionately. "I'll miss you too Dawn stone. Look out for yourself. Let's not meet again, yeah?"

She beamed at him. "Yeah… Take care."

Just as he was walking off spear in hand, it hit her.

"Ethan!" she cried out. The boy turned like fire on his tail, looking worried. She laughed. "Sorry! It's just… I remembered! Your name is Ethan!"

He grinned in the distance. "It sure is!"

And with that he was gone. Dawn spent a few minutes just staring after him before she gently pushed Jo off her lap and got to her feet. She lifted her bag from the ground and called back the penguin that seemed happy to return to its ball. Sighing softly she looked around.

"Right then," she mumbled to herself. "Off towards new adventures."

Then she started into the opposite direction.

-x-

This chapter makes me feel good, even though it's kind of a bitter sweet feeling. We learn a little more about Lyra, even though she's not with us any longer… well, I thought she deserved a bit more background.

**One or two notes: **

Ethan and Dawn might seem a bit too easygoing, seeing as their friend has just died, but I think they're kind of used to it. It's a part of the reality they live in, and even though they haven't experienced it firsthand before, they've known to expect it and in some way are more prepared than you or me would be in a similar situation.

As seen in the chapter, chimechos are used to drop off sponsors' gifts on the arena. I thought they fit the role of the parachutes.

In the universe of this story pokémon are eaten much like animals are in ours. The plasma uprising and the resulting separation from pokémon did not change the fact although it was initially one of its main objectives. Meat was simply a much too integral source of nutrition for the people. Nowadays the citizens of the Capitol mostly realize that there's an organized meat industry, although the origin of their meat products is often not clarified. They simply choose not to think about it. For the people of the districts this only proves a point in how hypocritical the system actually is.


	7. Dawn: part 6

**Notice: I had to take down this chapter and repost it because for some reason it was not working. Sorry for the inconvenience.  
**

-x-

**Dawn: part 6 **

-x-

Before nightfall Dawn found a natural diglett-made cavern a bit further in the forest. It was large enough to fit her inside but small enough to go unnoticed by most and relatively hidden from view. She decided that it would be a fine enough shelter to spend the night and crawled inside, letting Jo out of its ball for the night. Darkness fell fairly quickly after that and the anthem sounded. This time there were no casualties. It had been a peaceful day and Dawn was glad for that.

Sometime before sunrise, when it was still quite dark, she was woken by the sound of someone moving in the forest nearby. Her eyes fell open and in less than a second she was wide-awake. Jo stirred on her chest.

It wasn't a human—that much was certain. It was panting heavily and making soft growling sounds every now and then. The noises were too animal to be of human origin, so it had to be a pokémon. Remembering the past games, Dawn reminded herself that it could be a mutt too—a mutated pokémon specifically modeled to be deadlier than normally. Whatever it was, it was obviously far too close for comfort. Sweat broke on Dawn's forehead as she shook Jo lightly, hoping that the piplup wouldn't make a sound.

The penguin seemed to sense the danger and remained quiet, now just as awake as its owner. Dawn wiggled and managed to get the bag's straps on with minimal movement. They were both waiting, ready to bolt at any given moment.

There came a loud growl and mere seconds after it, Dawn was face to face with the largest and angriest looking mightyena she'd ever seen—she barely even recognized the pokémon. It was definitely a mutant.

In the split second Dawn had before the beast lunged, she screamed:

"_Jo, ice!"_

The penguin wasted no time but spit out a missile of needle-sharp shards of ice. It hit the mightyena in the eyes and it howled in pain, staggering back. Dawn grabbed her brave penguin and dashed off, running for her life. Unfortunately, it didn't take the mightyena long to recover. It probably had enhanced healing abilities. Dawn swore, making a sharp turn towards the lake. It was her best shot at survival.

She was already on the beach when pain exploded on her right calf. She cried out and stumbled down, kicking blindly with her unharmed leg. The beast retreated just enough give her the time she needed and she threw sand on the mutts face blinding it yet again. She scrambled up and limped to the lake. Jo hopped down from her lap and when the mightyena attacked once more the penguin brought up a shield of water that blocked the beast's plunge and sent it rolling to the sand.

Wet and angry the menacing pokémon growled at the pair from the beach but didn't try to attack anymore. It darted off, back to the safety of the woods. A few minutes later Dawn slumped down to the water. She was in shock, probably, because even though she tried to, she couldn't feel the pain from her leg.

Things weren't looking too good for her. Jo looked miserable, trying to nibble Dawn's sleeves to get her attention. The girl's leg was bleeding and she had no proper bandages, nor anything to clean the wound with. She would probably die from blood loss there in the shallow water. It seemed as good of death as any.

Suddenly Lyra's face flashed in front of her, clear as the day. The girl was angry—_why_ was she angry? Dawn tried to think even though it was hard. Everything was fuzzy except the girl in front of her.

"_Oh,"_ she breathed out when she realized.

Dawn had promised that she would win for Lyra's sake and here she was, lying on the ground and waiting for death. Not a very convincing champion, not even in her own eyes. Overcome with new determination she dragged herself back on the sand and wiggled free of her back bag. She didn't have anything in there to help her.

She struggled to sit up and shed off her jacket and then her under shirt. It would have to do, she didn't have anything else. Ripping it was hard with her weakened hands but she managed and set to work, tying the strips around the wound. It had been washed in the lake and she didn't have any antiseptics so there was nothing else to do about that except hope for the best.

With the makeshift bandage in place she started making her way towards the edge of the forest on all fours. She curled under a tree head spinning with exhaustion and managed to mumble out Jo's name before blackness took over.

-x-

A cannon shot woke Dawn from her slumber like a splash of cold water on the face. Panic sent adrenalin rushing through her veins like a rocket and she was up before she was even hundred percent conscious. _Ethan_, her mind screamed and after a second, _Lucas_. Only after a few minutes, during which she completely scanned her surrounding area in case of immediate threat, she remembered the painful wound on her leg. When she did, though, it became quite hard to concentrate on anything else.

Collapsing back down, she noticed Jo squeaking worriedly nearby. Dawn tried to make a sound, anything to calm the worried pokémon, but her voice seemed to have abandoned her. Her whole body was burning with fever and the wound in her calf throbbed. She managed a broken sob of pain but her body was too dry for tears. She had probably been sweating all night trying to ease the burn.

"Jo," she rasped out. "Water… Please."

The penguin answered by spraying heavenly cool bubbles all over her. It felt fantastic for a moment, before the pain took over again. Jo tentatively sprayed more water on her face and she drank it as well as she could.

It was dangerous, she knew, lying there in the open but it wasn't like she had much to say on the matter. Her legs wouldn't listen and her arms were barely usable… only her mind began ticking again with the water. Moments passed and she listened to her own breathing slow down and the pokémon rustling restlessly around her. Anger flooded into her with every passing second and she soon felt strong enough to climb into a sitting position and after a while she stood up.

Her right leg couldn't wholly support her when she tried but it was good enough to allow her to limp forward. Steeling her mind she began to make her way towards the lake, where she removed the bandages and washed the wound again. She was trying to figure out whether to use the same bandages or to make new ones with what was left of her shirt when she heard a familiar chime.

Looking up she saw a Chimecho floating towards her. This time it dropped its package right above her and Dawn, unprepared, barely caught it. Inside was a tin of some kind of a salve and a note from Cynthia:

_Use this and get away from there before they make you get away._

She smiled and murmured her thanks to the sky before plopping down to apply the salve to her leg. Amazingly enough the pain seemed to subdue almost immediately and she let out a sigh of relief before thanking the sponsors once more. Redoing the bandages she slipped the note from Cynthia to the pocket where the previous one still was and got up, smiling despite the slight pain. It was all for the cameras, all a part of the show that could help her survive.

"Let's go see if my bag's still where I left it," she muttered to Jo before calling the pokémon back to its ball.

Not that surprisingly she was able to find her bag untouched on the shore, right where she'd dropped it the previous night. Throwing it on her back she set out and decided that she would follow the shoreline to the same direction as Ethan had. She didn't walk out in the open like the boy had but instead ventured to the woods while keeping an eye on the lake that soon narrowed down into a river. At first the wound made her wince on every step but soon enough it became easier to bear until it completely stopped aching. Whatever the Capitol people had sent her was very powerful, maybe a full restore even. She had seen some trainers receive those in the past games but usually they were used on injured pokémon, not on the trainers themselves. She figured that must've been very lucky to get such an expensive and rare gift.

Sometime later when she stopped for a short break Dawn tried to guess what time it was. She had most likely been out cold for a good part of the day, sleeping out the fever. Dawn shivered at the thought that she might as well have been unconscious for days but it seemed unlikely. If she had, they probably would've killed her off during that time.

Lost in thought she continued onwards until she was suddenly snapped into full awareness by a sound. She froze, reaching for her belt and grasping Jo's pokéball. Someone was moving in the forest and as far as Dawn was able to tell, it was a human. Concentrating fully on listening she made a guess that it had to be a lone trainer, unless the others were moving really quietly.

Carefully she began to sneak towards the sounds. She couldn't run with her leg and even if she tried, she definitely wasn't fast enough to outrun someone who seemed to have no trouble moving about by the sounds of it. Her best bet would be to trudge quietly to the trainer's back and surprise them. In her mind she prayed that whoever it was wouldn't stop to notice that they weren't alone in the forest, like she herself had done.

Fully alert she worked her way through the bushes, taking care to avoid rustling leaves or stepping on twigs that would make a noise. She could make out a figure of a boy moving behind some more trees. Fear swirled in her stomach but she forced herself to move forward. She was doing this. She couldn't afford to be caught.

The trainer was closer now. Dawn hid herself behind a tree and held her breath as he moved past her. She then leaped out of her hiding place, throwing out Jo's ball. The boy swirled around, surprised, and Dawn's order to the penguin died on her lips before she had gotten it out. Instead she gasped.

"_Lucas?"_

-x-

For a full long minute they simply stared at each other cautiously. Lucas looked more pale and sickly than Dawn had ever seen him look and there was a fire in his eyes that told her he might do something rash if endangered. It was like Lucas wasn't completely _there_. Dawn tried to imagine what her own expression must've looked like, torn between fear, pity and hope. She offered the boy a hesitant smile and he seemed to relax slightly, answering it with a grin of his that was missing its typical energy.

"Hi Dawn," he greeted her nervously. His voice was raspy enough to sound painful. He was obviously suffering from some sort of a disease, possibly caused by an injury even though none were visible. "I didn't notice you there… I was a bit preoccupied, you see, because I'm trying to get away from the twins. They might still think I actually went looking for those berries they asked for, but not for long, so I need to find a place where they won't find me."

Once he had started he went on with his rambling like a mad man. Dawn nodded along politely, but her mind was flying as she tried to think of a place to hide. She seriously didn't want to face the two trainers from Unova.

"I was in alliance with them, kind of… honestly it was more like they were using me for whatever I was good at and otherwise I was left to my own devices. At least they kept me alive, which is lucky, I guess… oh!" His eyes brightened like he had suddenly remembered something. "I never thanked you! For the first day, I mean! You saved my life!"

"Well… yes," Dawn said, feeling a bit proud when she managed not to wince at the memories. "And I'm going to save it again, because you don't seem to have a clue on where you're going or what you're doing." With that she strode forward and took a hold of his arm. "Come on then, let's get going before they catch up on us."

"Oh, yeah, right," the boy mumbled. "They took my pokémon… ate it, actually. I didn't even get a bite, can you believe it? I didn't even get a taste of my _own _turtwig."

"All too well," she replied sourly and pulled the boy along.

They walked in silence for what must've been hours before Lucas started making a sort of a wailing sound, which Dawn figured meant that they had to stop or he would start howling in pain. Finding shelter for two people was even trickier than it had been alone, but she couldn't just leave the boy. That would've been as good as killing him on the spot and she had more or less promised herself that she wouldn't kill the boy. Besides it wasn't like she could have even if she'd wanted to. It felt too horrible even thinking about killing someone who'd in a short time become an important part of her life. It was true that they hadn't talked as much as they could've but the games had knit them together extra-fast. Killing Lucas would've meant killing someone who as dear to her as a brother would've been.

It was Jo who finally stumbled upon bushes that were similar to the ones where Dawn had spent her first night on the arena. They were thick and provided good cover after they had crawled underneath. It was dark already by then and Dawn was anxiously waiting for the nightly announcement of the day's victims. It hadn't been Lucas, which she was relieved about, but there was still Ethan. She idly realized that she shouldn't be so worried about the boy, who, despite his loyalty to Lyra, would undoubtedly kill her if it came down to that, but she couldn't help it.

Lucas passed out minutes after he had lied down. He seemed feverish as Dawn watched him, trashing slightly in his sleep. The girl only hoped that his slight rustling wouldn't attract any beasts or any of the other trainers. She brushed some stray strands of hair from his forehead wincing slightly at how hot it was. His infection was getting worse, it seemed. It was likely that the next day he would be too weak to move around but maybe they could spend the day there in the bushes. She could try and find those herbs Lyra had told her about, the ones that brought down fever.

She was roused from her musings by the anthem. She shuffled around trying to poke her head out of the bush. On the sky was the face of the boy from Kanto, the silent one with the scary eyes that hadn't been so scary after Dawn had talked with him on the rooftop. She felt bad. The thought that it could've been Ethan, who'd caused the boy's death, made her physically ill but she soon realized how ridiculous it was. After all, that was what they were in the arena for.

To kill the other trainers until only you yourself were standing—that was the point of the games.

-x-

Dawn slept blissfully into the next day without any unwished interferences and Lucas was, against all her expectations, in a better condition than the night before. It seemed that fortune was smiling down on them, especially so, when a chimecho arrived soon after they'd crawled out of the bushes to eat some breakfast. The package contained bread baked in the fashion of their home region.

Lucas was shocked to silence by the chimecho. He hadn't yet received any packages from sponsors and he was fairly sure it was all meant for Dawn, saying that he couldn't take any of it. Dawn called him off on his nonsense and split the bread in half. There was no note in the package this time and it could've just as well been from Sinnoh instead of the capitol audience, so she reasoned that it was important that they share it.

While they ate Lucas tried to explain how his time on the arena had gone by so far. It seemed to have been a series of dreadful events after another and the boy wasn't yet completely ready to talk about it. He got a slightly manic look in his eyes trying to, and Dawn hugged him and told him that he could tell her some other time. Secretly she doubted he'd ever have the chance to reveal all of it but brushed off such pessimistic thoughts.

From what she gathered, Lucas had been caught by the twins while running away from the initial bloodbath and they had forced him to ally with them. They'd made their fortress on the cornucopia after driving off Leaf, the girl from one, and May, who had tried to challenge the careers hold on the area. After that the twins had taken away his pokémon and cooked it just like Lucas had whined the previous night. For the past days the careers and Lucas had held their fort and made short hikes around it, trying to map the surrounding area and catch any oblivious trainers.

"We saw the boy from one, y'know, the one that was killed," Lucas said between bites. Dawn had offered him some of the dried meat she still had left because he looked like he needed the salt more than she did. "But we couldn't catch him. He was fast, even though he seemed to have lost his pokémon… I think it was either the girl from his district or the boy from two who ended him."

Dawn nodded and managed to stop herself from shivering with the dread of having her suspicions confirmed. In her mind Ethan was the more likely suspect behind it, simply because she couldn't imagine what kind of a person could kill someone from their own home region—someone who they had shared an apartment with for a week. It was true that May had done it, burning the boy from her region along Lyra, but somehow Dawn believed that Leaf wasn't like that. Not to the same extent, at least.

Lucas had gotten ill the second night from some sort of berries the twins had made him try out for them. He'd had some sort of hallucinations and a high fever but he had pulled through and decided that he would escape. So the next day he'd wandered off with the excuse of finding some berries and that had been how Dawn had found him, lost and still struggling with his illness.

"I can't ever thank you enough," Lucas told him for the umpteenth time. "Without you I probably would've turned around in my daze or fallen down somewhere and then some wild pokémon would've eaten me."

_No_, Dawn thought, _it's me who can never do enough to help you, because in the end I will have to let you go. There can only be one winner._

With breakfast out of the way the two trainers set out towards what Dawn hoped was the direction of the river. She had led them away from it, because she had figured that if the twins were really coming after Lucas they'd follow its trail closely. In daylight she figured that for both of their survival, being near water, where Jo was strongest, was their best bet.

"I think we need to get a bit closer to the others, even if it's not a pleasant idea," Dawn reasoned the boy who still felt like going to the river would be a risk. "I mean, the game makers will want to have more action soon enough, since the games have been slow-paced so far and I'd rather face that action knowingly than unprepared."

Dawn was repeating Ethan's thoughts to the boy who seemed equally taken aback by them as she herself had been at the time.

"I guess if you put it that way…" Lucas agreed. "But, let's not go to the cornucopia just yet, alright?"

She promised him that they wouldn't. The day passed without incidents and before dusk Dawn began to feel a nervous feeling creeping to her mind. There hadn't been any deaths that day, not yet. The lack of action was worrying because it would mean that the game makers would have to intervene. She didn't want to have a repetition of the incident with the mutt just because the viewers were getting bored. Her wound had transformed into a scar abnormally fast, but it was a painful reminder of just how close she had been to losing her life.

They were in the process of finding themselves a place to spend the night in when a cannon shot fired. Not ten minutes later there was another. Luckily for them, it seemed that the action had taken place elsewhere but that didn't stop Lucas from crying out at the sound of the second cannon.

"Dawn!" he exclaimed far too loud and the girl clamped her hand to cover his mouth, making shushing sounds. Lucas made an apologetic expression and continued with a whisper. "Five trainers are dead, five! Do you understand?"

Dawn looked puzzled. "There… are still five left?" she asked unsure. Honestly she had no idea what the boy was raving on about because there were far too many possibilities. She had even feared that his fever had returned, but his face wasn't all that hot.

"Exactly!" Lucas nodded furiously. "Only one more to go… only one more and we're in the _elite four_."

Dawn's eyes widened. She understood all too well why the boy was both excited and frightened. Almost always as soon as six trainers had lost their lives the game makers forced the remaining four, the elites, together. Being in the final four meant that your chances were diminished into nothingness if you were afraid of confronting the others. And Dawn _was_. Really, she could full well admit it—she was afraid of facing May and the twins, because she was nearly hundred percent certain that the cannon shots hadn't been any of them.

"We'll have to go to the cornucopia," she whispered. Lucas whimpered. "I mean… we'll have to think of a plan, because we have to separate the twins. We don't stand a chance against them if they're together."

Lucas hesitantly resumed to his nodding.

"You're right," he agreed. "And I think I know how we can do it."

-x-

This time on the Trainer Games: near-death experiences and reunited friends!

Yeah, that more or less sums it up. My life has been pretty hectic for the past days, so I just hope this isn't too rushed. I tried to spot all the mistakes but there maybe a few (or many) that slipped my attention. Sorry about that.

Next time: Lucas' mystery plan in action!


	8. Dawn: part 7

**Dawn: part 7 **

-x-

Nightfall and the death toll confirmed the victims to be Leaf and Ethan. Dawn mourned for the boy for a few moments, but that was as long as she could spare for him. She and Lucas had to keep moving, or more accurately, had to find May Birch's location before morning, or else Lucas's plan wouldn't work. When he had explained it to Dawn, she had first been terrified and refused to take part in such a dangerous enterprise, but after a few minutes of coaxing she had sullenly agreed. It was all they had, even if she didn't like it. They would have to try.

The plan was fairly simple, but required some precision to work. Firstly, as stated, they needed to find May—that was probably the hardest part. Luckily Lucas seemed to have some kind of an idea from what he'd heard from the twins, so they were working with that. Secondly, Lucas would return to the Cornucopia and reveal May's location to the twins and lead one of them to May, preferably before the girl was awake. In order to keep both of them from coming along he would probably have to reveal that Dawn was in the area, as to make the other stay behind and guard their camp.

Then, as soon as the other twin was fighting with May, Lucas would sneak back to where Dawn was waiting and they would take down the other twin. Hopefully this would lead to a situation where only either one of the twins or May remained on the arena with them.

It was incredibly risky. In fact, both of them agreed that there was a chance that they could both be killed even while looking for May, but the larger risk was on Lucas. Dawn didn't want to lead him to his death, but the boy waved her off with a typical smile of his.

"C'mon, let's face it… I'm still weak from that illness and there's no guarantee that it won't come back. I don't have my pokémon or any kind of a weapon. I'm not going to make it out of here alive unless there's some kind of a miracle and miracles don't happen in the Trainer games."

Despite talking about his death, Lucas was calmer than Dawn remembered him ever being. He didn't sound bitter at all, no matter that it wasn't fair at all that he had to die, and that nearly brought tears to Dawn's eyes. She would be bitter in his stead.

"But you, on the other hand," the boy went on, turning to face her. "You have all the chances in the world. So if I cannot win this, I can at least help you get home alive. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, yeah?"

For a while the girl was unable to speak, fearing that nothing but sobs would come out. Finally she murmured weakly: "If you say so."

Lucas grinned, but the smile was without real feeling.

It took them a good part of the night, which they spent fully alert and moving as fast and silent as humanly possible, but they actually managed to find May, who fortunately was heavily asleep and as such didn't rouse when the other stumbled upon her. She was up in a tree, which Lucas guessed to be surrounded with traps of all sorts. Her pokémon wasn't out, but both Sinnoh trainers swore that the girl was clutching its pokéball in her sleep. Silently they retreated back to where they couldn't be heard and headed together towards the Cornucopia.

It was a few hours until sunrise… if they moved fast they could still follow through with their plan. Everything was silent and dark in the forest as they walked. Adrenalin was pumping in Dawn's veins, forcing her to move faster still. _It's going to work_, she kept telling herself, but couldn't stop wishing that they had more time—not because they couldn't make it, but rather because she didn't want to let the boy go just yet. Far too soon Lucas stopped on his tracks and turned to her.

"Okay, this is it," he said sternly. "This is where we part ways. The Cornucopia meadow is just a bit further away. You head into that direction," he pointed to their right, "and there will be bushes there, right by the edge of the forest. You'll have to be really careful, but you should be able to view the Cornucopia and keep an eye on things. If all goes well and I get one of them to come with me, you should wait for me there in the bushes."

"Wait," Dawn whispered frantically. "What do I do if you leave but don't come back?"

Lucas shrugged. "I'll try to, but if I can't… well, then you just have to try and make it on your own. Try to count hours. If I'm not back in three, then consider me dead."

Dawn felt torn apart, but she smiled. "Good luck Lucas."

"Yeah," he answered the smile, "you too Dawn stone, you too."

-x-

Waiting was tedious and horrible. From her hiding place in the bushes Dawn watched Lucas nearly get killed in front of her eyes, before the twins actually stopped and considered what he had to offer. She couldn't hear what they were saying, not completely, but from their positions she guessed that they had taken the bait and sighed in relief, hoping that it wouldn't be short-lived. It took some more talking and then the boy was leaving with Lucas, a pleased expression on his face as far as Dawn could see.

The girl slumped back down, calling out her pokémon. It was some kind of a serpent, and grass-type. It would be more difficult to beat with Jo being water-type, but she didn't want to worry about that, not yet. So many things could still go wrong. Dawn sat back and smiled a bit. It should take Lucas an hour to lead the boy—whatever his name was, something German if Dawn remembered correctly—to May and another to get back. Until then she had nothing better to do than to think of strategies in the darkness of the creeping morning.

If the plan worked like Lucas had hoped, they would obviously have the element of surprise on their side. Instead of facing an unprepared opponent the girl would be against not only one but two trainers who were ready for the fight. Well, as ready as one could be to fight another child to the death, though Dawn doubted that the twins were children anymore. They could've easily been adults by the federation's standards, eighteen or seventeen already.

That was the age when most careers volunteered to take part in the games, she realized with a grimace, remembering another problem. The girl, though undermanned, was a career. It meant that she had been training for the games since she was little and as such was both physically and mentally more capable of injuring and killing them. Dawn hadn't ever even thought of killing another human, except in passing when thinking about the games and obviously a lot for the past week. Even so, she had no idea where to begin.

She buried her face in her hands for a moment, wishing that she could just disappear. It was all just too much, far too much for one person to bear, but she would have to try and pull through. She had made a promise. With newfound determination Dawn raised her head and fixed her eyes on the girl sitting by the Cornucopia.

Without a doubt, she was strong, maybe even stronger than Dawn and Lucas combined. There was no sense in trying to attack face on, unless they wanted to die. Dawn looked around as much as she could without moving. It would be fairly easy to sneak around the meadow without her noticing. If the girl didn't move much, Dawn could attack from the side while Lucas came from the back, from behind the Cornucopia where he could snatch himself a weapon.

_No_, she thought again, _it's too risky_. Possibly Lucas could come out from the woods looking like something was wrong. Maybe that would throw the girl off and _then _Dawn could sneak an attack on her from behind, pass a weapon to Lucas and keep one ho herself, use it if needed. That was better. It would give them a moment to get themselves sorted. Perhaps if she was sneaky enough she and Jo could even take out the serpent pokémon with one shot.

Actually, one shot was all they were going to get. If they missed that, they would probably be done for. Jo was good at defending her in water, but they weren't near enough to the river that flowed behind the Cornucopia. And even if they were, Jo wouldn't be able protect both her and Lucas, not with them so far apart. The girl was enough on her own, but if her pokémon survived their initial attack, it would be too much to handle.

Dawn swallowed, suddenly feeling the slight panic return. It was still dark, but it wasn't that long until sunrise. Lucas would be back much too soon.

She wasn't ready.

-x-

There had been no cannon shots, no sound in two hours and both Dawn and the girl with the serpent were getting anxious. Dawn had hope, still. At least Lucas hadn't been killed, which probably meant that he would be back any moment now. She kept holding tightly onto that thought, until she heard very, very quiet rustling right behind her. Her first instinct was to leap and run, fearing a wild pokémon or far worse, but the rational part of her brain forced her to remain still and wait. In a few moments he could make out Lucas crawling towards her. She smiled, but in a second more her smile faded, replaced by a look of horror.

The boy's right side was bloody and blackened, almost like… burned. Panic clutched tightly on Dawn's breath, images of the first day flashing before her eyes like the frames of a horror movie. She couldn't breathe, couldn't talk. She could only stare as the boy moved slowly towards him, wincing slightly with every movement. He tried to smile reassuringly, but it only made Dawn feel worse. When Lucas was close enough to touch she nearly let out a strangled gasp, but Lucas silenced her with a hand to her mouth.

"Shh," he cooed calmingly, as quiet as possible. "It's alright Dawn, yeah? I just got hit with a stray flame. They were fighting when I left, moving away from here. It's all alright. I'm fine. We're gonna be fine. We can still do this."

The girl nodded, trying to calm herself. A minute passed and she felt her breathing slow down to normal level. "You should go out," she murmured. "Say that something went wrong, that May's coming, anything to make her panic even slightly. I'll slip to the back and let out Jo from there. We need to take out the pokémon first."

"Use ice," Lucas hissed and Dawn wondered if it was because of the pain. "Grass-types are weak to it."

"Yeah," Dawn agreed breathlessly. "Yeah, okay. Ice, got it. I'll try to throw you a weapon from the Cornucopia so be prepared."

Lucas grinned weakly, suppressing a cough on his sleeve. "Get going Dawn, I'll wait exactly three minutes for you to get in position. Try the left side… it'll be easier to sneak from there."

"Okay," Dawn whispered, smiling a bit.

She moved carefully, but fast. It seemed that the girl from Unova wasn't that good of a guard, because she didn't notice a thing even when Dawn accidently stumbled. Biting her lips she got up and continued making her way until she was on the edge of the forest securely behind the girls back and nearly out of sight. Then she slipped out from the cover of the trees and tiptoed to the Cornucopia. Its surface was cool to the touch when Dawn pressed against it, very quietly moving towards the mouth. She had just slipped inside when the girl suddenly rose up.

"Hey, brat," she called out, voice laced with suspicion. Dawn checked and saw that Lucas was limping into view from the woods. The serpent's attention was also caught by the approaching boy. As fast as she could, Dawn grabbed two long knives from the floor and her pokéball from her belt.

"Where'd you leave my brother?" The career went on. Lucas opened his mouth but didn't get a reply out, because Dawn chose that moment to throw out Jo as well as one of the knives. Her aim was off, but it graced the girls arm and she cried out in surprise and pain. Lucas leaped forward, revealing that he was still perfectly capable of running.

"Jo, ice the snake!" Dawn yelled, but the small water-type would've figured what to do even without her orders. It avoided the needle sharp leaves the serpent had sent out flying more as a reflex than as an actual attack and opened its beak to spit out ice missiles towards the threat.

The grass type tried to slither out of sight but was caught in the tail. It let out a wail of pain and rage, but it was too late. The missile had slowed it down just enough for Lucas, who had managed to get a hold of the knife, to land a clean shot, straight to the pokémon's neck. It hissed, but life was already fading out of its eyes.

Their victory was short lived as the career had already recovered from her initial surprise. She lunged towards Lucas with a knife in her hand—she must've had it on her, even though Dawn hadn't seen her holding one. With one neat kick she sent Jo flying on the way. Dawn started running forward, crying out Lucas's name. It was too late, she realized as she watched the girl tackle the boy to the ground. For a second she was frozen to the spot, before spurring to motion, taking a few running steps and throwing the other knife she still had with all her power.

It wasn't a perfect shot, not by any means, but it hit the girl on his lower back and she screamed. Down on the ground underneath her, Lucas struggled and managed to get a hold of his own knife pushing it sloppily into the girl's stomach.

Time seemed to slow down. With perfect clarity Dawn could see the way the girl's eyes widened. Her breath hitched and she struggled to get a sound out but couldn't. Lucas pulled the knife out of her body slowly, too slowly, blood streaming down from the wound. The girl looked down, her mouth opening. She brought her hands to her stomach, drenching them red. She coughed and streams of the same red liquid came flowing out of her mouth. Horrified, the career looked up choked on her breath once, twice and fell over.

-x-

Dawn rushed forward towards the girl now lying on top of Lucas motionless. On the way she called back Jo, hoping that the penguin was alright, because she didn't have the time to treat it just yet, not now. In a frantic frenzy she pried the career's body from Lucas, horrified to find that the girl was actually still alive just too shocked to react. The boy wheezed and opened his eyes with visible effort. There was blood all over and pooling around him. _It isn't all his_, Dawn kept repeating in her mind, _it's the girl's blood, it isn't all his_. She wanted to close her eyes and believe that when she opened them the boy would be okay, no wounds on his stomach. She wanted to hide from the truth a little longer, but Lucas didn't.

"Dawn," he rasped smiling up at her. The girl dropped down to her knees very carefully taking his head in her hands and lifting it to her lap. He winced softly, but didn't protest. "You know I'm going to die, right? But that's okay, that's fine, really. I knew I was going to die, I told you so, didn't I?"

He was rambling just like always even though his voice was weak and his breath coming raggedly. Dawn gave a choked laugh and absently realized that her cheeks were wet. She was crying. She hadn't even noticed.

"Hey," the boy mumbled but couldn't raise his hand even though he tried to. Dawn took it, holding it close to her and petting it softly. "Don't cry, Dawn stone... Smile. We did it, you should be happy. _I'm_ happy. You're going to be alright and that," he coughed again, spitting out blood, "that really means a lot to me."

"Please, Lucas," Dawn whimpered. She didn't even know what she was trying to say. "Please, just… _please_…"

He smiled and closed his eyes. "I would've wanted to date you," he confessed quietly. "Back in home. I would've brought you flowers and…" his breath hitched and he couldn't go on.

"Yeah," Dawn replied quickly. "Yeah, I would've liked that."

Lucas opened his eyes again. "You would've?" He beamed. "I'm glad, Dawn stone," he mumbled. "I'm… really…"

The words died on his lips. Dawn waited for a few seconds.

"Lucas?" she whispered. The boy didn't reply.

He was staring up at the sky, no breath coming from his mouth.

Dawn stroked his cheeks tenderly and let the tears flow.

She stayed like that, holding the boy until the cannons started. First one shot for the career girl followed soon after by one for Lucas and then a few minutes later, another. Dawn's instinct told her that she had to get out of there, had to move out before whoever was left came looking for her. Then she realized that she was alone, up against the last remaining trainer besides her. There was no use in running away. Gently she closed the boy's eyelids, lifted his head from her lap and rose up. Determined, she nodded towards the forest.

She hadn't been ready before but now… now, she would be prepared.

-x-

From the mouth of the Cornucopia Dawn watched the hovercraft come and pick up the bodies of the girl and Lucas. She released Jo from its ball and treated the penguin with the potions and ethers she found in the Cornucopia. As it turned out, the pokémon hadn't luckily been hurt that bad, it had just been knocked out from the impact. It cheered Dawn up, if only for a bit. At least she hadn't lost two friends that day.

After she was sure they were both in good enough condition, there was really nothing else to do. There were some berries and fruits lying about—courtesy of the now dead twins, she figured—so they both ate. Dawn didn't bother calling the penguin to its ball after that. She would need its help soon enough. They were waiting.

The sun was up already shining bright and low like it did in the mornings. Dawn was patient, all of her previous anxiety gone along with Lucas. It was, she figured, because now she had no one else but herself to worry about. Whoever came out of that forest had probably killed somebody she knew. It was revenge and the though felt both alien and comforting in her mind.

It took two hours, but Dawn picked up the sound of someone approaching immediately. It could've been a pokémon based on the rustling alone, but somehow she was certain it wasn't. She stood up, snapping Jo to attention. There was a knife in her hand, smaller than the ones from before and held so that it was hidden from view. She hoped it would be unexpected if she had to use it.

Slowly but surely a girl with a familiar red bandanna walked out of the woods and into the clearing. May Birch visibly radiated confidence with her bright blue eyes and a smirk that told tales of just how easy she thought winning would be.

_It won't be easy,_ Dawn promised herself, as well as the memory of Lyra and Lucas, _she'll be up for a_ _surprise_.

Never one for words, the older girl merely broke into a run, throwing out her pokéball. Dawn started to her left barking orders for Jo. The penguin sprayed water at the pokéball when it was still in air, knocking it off course and surprising May so much that she halted her run. Dawn called Jo into her ball, only barely managing it because of the distance and kept running straight towards the river.

May was at her heels much faster than she had expected, but it worked. She got to the river in time to release Jo once more. The penguin whisked up a wall of water that stopped them from being fried alive. On the shore the not anymore as little firebird cried out in irritation. Jo sent the wall crashing forward but the bird managed to get off the way barely, sending a ball fire into their direction.

Dawn ducked, grabbed Jo and threw the penguin into the air. It actually worked and the fire type was confused for just long enough for the smaller bird to land a hit straight on. Both pokémon flew on the ground. Dawn grinned for a second before she was suddenly yanked off her feet. While she had been avoiding the fire attacks, May had crept closer and was now pushing the struggling girl under water.

Dawn had water in her lungs and she tried to cough but there was no air, nothing to breath. Panic blinded her vision and she knew that it would make her drown even faster, but she couldn't help it, not until she remembered her trump card.

Aiming as well as she could while blind she turned the blade in her hand towards the girl somewhere above her and drove it into her flesh. The hold on her throat and shoulders loosened. Frantically, with more power than she was aware of possessing, she pushed up, gasping for breath as soon as she broke the water's surface.

She blinked, trying to see. Everything was red around her, the water dyed with May's blood. The girl herself was floating a bit further off. Dawn swam towards her and turned her around, not sure that she was dead and let out a strangled sound. The same knife that she'd held in her hands a minute before was sticking from the girl's neck, blood still pouring out from the wound.

May Birch stared at her with a blank expression of shock, unblinking.

The cannon sounded, followed by the booming voice of the announcer.

"_**Ladies and gentlemen! May I present you the champion of the 61st**__**Trainer Games: Dawn DeBlanc from District Four! Congratulations!"**_

Dawn barely understood what the voice was saying. Her mind was raging in circles as she tried to get away from the red water, away from the dead girl floating about, away from the severity of her actions.

She barely made it to the banks before her vision faded to black.

-x-

**A/N:** Here we are—the shocking conclusion, which still breaks my heart even though I knew all along it was coming. I'll post the final chapter soon enough and then we'll see if Dawn is really alright.


	9. Dawn: part 8

**Dawn: part 8 **

"**Happily ever after"**

-x-

Everything was bright when she came to. She had no idea if it was morning or in the middle of the night, or for how long she had been out. When she thought about it, she couldn't even say how long she had been awake, wondering about time. It made her smile a bit, even with her eyes still closed.

"I see someone's awake."

The voice was amused and familiar, a woman. Her heart skipped a beat—a voice meant danger, especially a voice she couldn't recognize. _Cynthia, _her mind reminded her of whom the voice belonged to and she relaxed as realization dawned on her. Of course it was Cynthia. Dawn had won the games, had she not? Her mentor would obviously be the first one to greet her—they were a team after all, together in this.

Except… Cynthia hadn't been on the arena with her. She hadn't been there to witness Lyra burst into flames from close by, hadn't been there to save him from the beasts that came in the night, hadn't felt May die by her hands. That was all Dawn, all of it on her and it weighed like ton of bricks on her shoulders.

Slowly, recovering from her dark thoughts, she opened her eyes to the world. She was in a bed, but not in the one she remembered as her own. It was at a hospital then, because she knew they always made sure to treat the champion right after they returned from the arena. They had to, or otherwise there would've been no champion some of the years.

"How are you feeling, then?" Cynthia asked. She was sitting by the bed, just as beautiful as Dawn remembered, and smiling warmly. "You've been out for two days, you know. Exhaustion and mental stress, they said, but nothing serious. You got off lucky, Dawn stone. I'm glad."

Dawn didn't feel lucky at all but she still returned the smile. "That's… good," her throat was dry and stung a bit, not having been used for so long. "How's Jo?"

The woman's face fell. "Not dead," she answered evasively. Dawn groaned lightly and the woman continued. "Now, don't be like that… you wouldn't have been able to keep her after, anyways. From what I know happens to the champion's pokémon after the games, I think we're both better off hoping that she'll die despite the treatments."

Dawn felt the sorrow of yet another fresh loss, but this time it was dulled. She suspected it had something to do with the drugs they had undoubtedly pumped her full of—something to make her sleep peacefully, without dreaming. She nodded to her mentor, a simple gesture that told the woman that she understood. Cynthia stared at her for a while before offering a sad smile.

"Do you need to sleep some more?" She asked and Dawn shook her head, making herself dizzy. "I'll go get the doctor then. I bet you want out of here as much as I do."

There were some tests to evaluate if she was ready to leave, all of which she breezed through in a drug induced haze, and then someone was bringing her clothes and telling her to get dressed. Cynthia was waiting for her when she finally stepped out from her hospital room. They walked down together and a limo drove them off. Upon arriving to the training center she was immediately dragged away to be fussed over by Marley and Cheryl, who were, respectively, as bored and as quiet as they'd ever been.

Marley congratulated her on becoming champion. She couldn't muster up a response.

Riley came in as soon as they were done. He seemed to be genuinely happy to see Dawn again and that cheered the girl up, just a bit. The dress he'd come up with for the crowning and the final interview was just as fabulous as the previous ones with its pink, white and blue color scheme, but Dawn couldn't get excited about it. Her stylist noticed the lack of enthusiasm from her part, but didn't sue her for it. In fact, Riley patted her on the head and told her that it was alright to be depressed as long as she still remembered why she had wanted to win.

It helped more than Dawn would've believed.

It was the truth, wasn't it? She had really had a reason for this. In the games, in the arena it had been difficult to remember anything past the guilt of letting Lyra die and the fear of never knowing what was going to happen next. She had needed to concentrate all of her might on surviving, so much so that she had forgotten why she was even doing it in the first place.

After being reminded of that she kept on imagining how she soon enough would be with her mother again. Johanna would smile and cry and tell her how proud she was and how they would be alright, everything would be alright.

She repeated the thought in her head like a mantra, like it would become real if she kept on saying it. It had been easy to believe those words when she'd had no idea what it felt like to have another person die in her arms. Now, though, it almost felt like a lie.

-x-

Before Dawn walked on stage Cynthia gave her only one piece of advice.

"Be yourself," she said, "but don't let on how bad you truly feel deep inside. I know about that, you don't have to hide it from me… but them?" She shook her head. "They won't understand."

Dawn tried to keep it in mind when she was met with applause so loud that her ears started ringing. Lights were flashing all around her and there was glitter raining down from the ceiling. Dawn laughed and smiled and waved, feeling quite hollow inside. She even paused during her way to spin around trying to catch the glitter. The audience loved it.

"Dawn! It's lovely to see you!" Ms. Shauntal exclaimed happily, beckoning her to sit down.

"Thank you," Dawn said out of breath. "The feeling is quite mutual."

"So," the hostess leaned in a bit closer, "how're you feeling?"

"A bit lost, honestly," she admitted with a shy smile, one that was completely_ fake _even if the words were sincere. "It's like… I keep thinking that I'm going to wake up and this will all just be a dream. It feels like now that I've done what I was trying to do all the time I don't know what I'm supposed to do next." She paused to throw the audience a curious look. "What do you do when you've won?"

Ms. Shauntal laughed good-naturedly. "Well, I'm sure we would all like to know that very much." Judging by the cheers and calls the audience seemed to agree. "Don't you have any plans at all for the future?"

Dawn shook her head. "Not really… all my previous plans had been on the basis that I wouldn't win the Trainer games," the comment earned her a few chuckles, "but I guess I'll have to think of something new, now that I have. I'll come up with something, don't worry. I'm very imaginative when I try to be."

"I'm sure," the hostess said as soon as the chuckles had died down. "Actually, we all got a good impression of that from your actions on the arena. Let's have a look shall we?"

Encouraged by the audience's cheers and claps they started the reel. Dawn feared that they would show Lyra dying, trying to brace herself for the impact of seeing it again without knowing how to. Luckily, the first clip was of Dawn receiving the flask and standing on the cliff, making the promise to the girl. The next clip was of her catching fish by the lake, eating with Ethan, smiling. Then there was some drama, from when she'd been chased by the mutt and then of her reuniting with Lucas.

The last clips, though, were just like she had feared—far too painful for Dawn to watch, especially the one showing Lucas's last moments. She turned her head away but kept on a calm expression, instead regarding the faceless people in the audience. It was just like Cynthia had said: none of them understood, but she wouldn't let them see how_ broken_ she really was.

Once the screen faded to black there was applause and Dawn mustered a smile at the crowd. Ms. Shauntal turned her attention back to the interview with a small cough.

"You had some pretty nice alliances on the arena, one which didn't really have the chance to bloom, am I right?"

"Yes," Dawn breathed out, once again feeling kind of breathless. It was the stress—that's what the doctors had said in the hospital, the mental strain was so bad that it would cause her to feel physically weary. "Lyra was very important to me."

She had to pause because the audience started cheering. Honestly she was happy about the chance to collect her thoughts and swallow down the lump in her throat before continuing.

"We worked really well together in training but… I guess if she had to go, it was a good way. I wouldn't have been able to fight her if it had come to that."

"That is understandable." The woman nodded. "I'm sure we all caught a glimpse of how much she meant to you… But how about Lucas, from your own district, was he a friend?"

Dawn swallowed again. "Yes, he… he was a friend. A good friend in fact, and…" she didn't know what to say. Suddenly the memories were all too raw and painful in her mind. She had to take a deep breath to calm herself and only hoped that she wasn't showing too much like Cynthia had warned.

"When I first saw him," she began anew, "it was like meeting an old friend. We fit really well together, even if we had never met before. He talked to me even when I was quiet, always trying his best. I'll always remember him… no matter how many years will pass he, and Lyra too, they will both be a part of me wherever I go."

The audience went wild. Ms. Shauntal patted her shoulder sympathetically and she smiled a bit for the cameras, for the audience, for her dead friends.

"Such inspiring words from this year's champion, Dawn DeBlanc," the hostess said smiling wide. "I have one final question for you Dawn… Last time you were here you mentioned your mother being important to you. Are you looking forward to meeting her?"

Dawn's breath caught in her throat.

"Yes," she whispered, "more than anything."

That was a thought to hold onto.

-x-

Before the crowning ceremony Dawn's make up and overall appearance was checked once more. Cynthia stayed by her side during it all, like a silent guardian. Dawn realized that she really, truly appreciated the woman, not only for all of her work on keeping her alive but also for making sure that she was alright to boot. She felt like, given time, Cynthia could be like a big sister to her, and in some ways she already was.

"Remember now," the mentor muttered to her ear as they were headed down for the limo that would take them to the ceremony, "that you need to be extra careful around president Harmonia. He's the law around here. If he doesn't like a champion, well… then there won't be a champion anymore."

Dawn looked up and met her eyes. Cynthia wore a pained expression, like she was speaking from experience. I triggered some memory in Dawn's mind.

"You…" she whispered. "You're talking about Maylene from four years ago, aren't you?"

The woman sighed. "Yes, I thought you would know. Don't be rash like her and you won't get into trouble."

The girl nodded. Maylene was yet another tribute who had committed suicide, or that was what official records stated. Unofficially it was widely rumored that she had been pressured into taking her own life because of her anti-games statements after her victory. Dawn thought about it and suddenly, as suddenly as all of this had happened to her, she came to a conclusion.

She would pick up Maylene's mission, if not the way the girl herself had planned it. She would do all in her power to help the people who suffered because of the Capitol and because of the games. She would use her Champion's income to help the families who had lost their children, as well as the children who might one day be up to the challenge. She would make them better, stronger,_ prepared_—just like Cynthia and her mother had made her.

In the ceremony she stood as tall and proud as she could without feeling the least bit of pride in what she had done. The president gave the same meaningless speech as the past years and then walked over, ceremoniously placing the crown on Dawn's head.

"You were very clever on the arena," the man muttered to her. "I was impressed."

"Thank you, sir," Dawn replied, casting her eyes down. It was all she could say with the rage and sorrow boiling hot in her stomach.

She waved to the cheering citizens of Capitol as she rode on a chariot down the street, not feeling the least bit like a champion. Instead there was a sense of anticipation lingering in her mind—something was going to change in Sinnoh, maybe even in the whole of the Federation. She would make sure of it.

Afterwards she was taken back to the apartment in the training center, for the last night in the Capitol. She couldn't sleep, not with the memories, so instead she walked up the stairs and to the roof where she'd had the conversation with the silent boy from Kanto and cried until sunrise.

-x-

The boat ride was uneventful and felt wrong without Lucas by her side, much like it had felt wrong staying in the apartment at the training center when the pale grinning boy wasn't there, rambling about something nonsensical. Her chest hurt a lot these days even though, as she had learned in school, the heart was in no way related to emotions, save for the occasional quickening heartbeat caused by surprise or other sudden emotions. Dawn found it rather hard to believe with what she was going through.

Cynthia wasn't her only company—Fantina, Lucian and Volkner were all there—but Cynthia was the only one she wanted to talk _to_, with the exception of Volkner, who didn't want to talk to _her_. Cynthia told her that it would take the man a few days to get used to her again, because apparently, he had _believed_ in Lucas until the very end. Though it came as somewhat of a shock, especially since all she'd ever seen was Volkner belittling his protégé, Dawn found herself understanding the man a bit better.

He hadn't wanted to get too close, not wanting to be disappointed, but deep down he couldn't help himself from getting attached. She understood. All those people who had died—Lyra, Lucas, Ethan… even Red, the silent boy from Kanto, whose name Dawn had only learned after the games, and maybe even May, whose name still sent shivers down Dawn's spine, for reasons that were more complicated than before—she had known them for such a short time, but she had still felt their deaths like a bullet to her own chest. In May's case, though, it wasn't because of anything resembling attachment, but the feeling of guilt that caused the reaction.

Because she had killed the girl and now she would have to live with that knowledge for the rest of her life.

On the topic of life, Cynthia and Dawn talked about how things would go from then on. She would return to Hearthome, at first, but only to collect her belongings. After that, she and her mother would be moved to the Pokémon League where all of District four's remaining champions lived. Cynthia tried to nudge her into asking questions about it, but Dawn really couldn't see the point in it. There was only one thing she wanted to know.

"Can I donate my winning money to others?" she asked cutting through Cynthia's speech about something or other, Dawn hadn't really been paying attention.

It was a new trait—not paying attention. Before she would listen to others with no exceptions, but now she couldn't always feel up to it. More often than not it felt like whatever was being said wasn't worth being heard. She had been a quiet, well-mannered child all her life, but now she wondered if she would become like Red … never talking unless it was absolutely necessary.

At least the question was simple and straight to the point, very different from the way she had used to ask questions. _Yes_, she thought,_ it could be the new me, the girl that never wastes words_. She didn't yet know if it was for the better or for the worse, but the change was there. It felt like her eyes had been opened and she had seen in the mirror how meaningless she was and just how _little_ she truly knew—someone as unaware as _her_ was better off keeping her mouth shut.

Cynthia hesitated with her answer. "Well, technically yes… but I think it has to happen as a part of a big media charade. The Capitol has to approve of the cause too. You can't just go giving it away to anybody."

"That's… good," Dawn said with a small smile. "I also want to travel. I need to learn about the world, about Sinnoh."

The woman's expression turned sour. "That might be a problem."

"Why?"

"Well…" She sighed tiredly. "You can visit the cities and towns, sure. Nobody's stopping that, _yet_, but there's still restriction of movement in the wilds, as you should know. The Capitol doesn't want anyone, especially any of the champions, wondering around and possibly befriending pokémon. It's a sign of rebellion to them."

Dawn looked down, biting on her lower lip. "I… I can't promise I won't try."

"Don't worry." Cynthia's smile was evident in her voice. "I wasn't going to make you."

They shared a look and smiled at each other. Dawn realized that it could be fine, living his life in the league and really becoming friends with Cynthia. Her life would be forever tied to the games, she would have to step up as a mentor and watch close by as two children were sent to kill or be killed, but maybe it would be okay. She could help people, like she had decided, help those young children going to the arena. She was alive, unlike Lyra and Lucas, and she now understood that it wasn't enough that she had won in their stead like she'd been driven to do in the arena—she would also have to_ live_ in their stead.

Dawn looked outside and saw the lights of Canalave in the distance. She would be home very soon.

_Yes,_ she thought, _it will be all alright._

And this time, it wasn't an almost-a-lie, but the beginnings of a budding hope.

-x-

**THE END**

-x-

**A/N:** oh my god, it's finally done. This is the longest piece I've ever written and it feels amazing to have it done. I'll have to come back some day, to fix my errors and such, but for now I'll just bask in how it good it is to have it over and done with.

Also, now that I'm at the finish line, I want to thank everyone who read this, especially those of you who left me feedback. I never expected this story to become hugely popular but the few people who commented, gave me ideas and encouraged me to go on really made writing this story worth it. Thanks so_ much_ guys, you rock!


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